


Volume 1: Academia

by Thorns_of_a_Rose



Series: Scattered Petals AU [1]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, F/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-15
Updated: 2017-05-22
Packaged: 2018-09-08 20:28:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 15
Words: 43,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8859877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thorns_of_a_Rose/pseuds/Thorns_of_a_Rose
Summary: Just like every show, RWBY has a lot of 'what if' moments, places where the story could go in a whole different direction just because of one change.Scattered Petals is one of those universes, one where Team RWBY never formed, the reason why is explained in the Prologue. The rest of the story follows characters, both returning and new, in this world where an old power has died, starting the cycle anew. So join teams old and new as they embark on a journey that will test their spirits as an evil rises, threatening to burn all of Remnant.Winter is white SNOW, fresh upon the groundSpring is the JNPR tree in bloom, brightening the worldSummer is the BLZE of heat, bearing down on allFall is hot CFVY with friends and family as the year winds down





	1. Prologue: Wilted Rose

A young girl trudges up hills, pulling a little red wagon behind her, her half-sister asleep in the wagon. She remembers the note she wrote before leaving, ‘Daddy, I left to find Mom. I took Sis with me, I’ll come back, don’t worry.’ The rain pours down, turning the path to mud. Her hair is caked in mud and filled with sticks and thorns, skin covered in cuts and bruises, legs feeling like they’re about to give out, but she trudges on. She needs to do this, to find her, to meet the women that left her and her father, to at least ask her why she ran away. She hopes that it’s close, the place in the picture, the one that shows her uncle and ‘mother’ standing in front of a building in the woods, she hopes that she is there, she needs to be there.

  
After what feels like hours the young girl reaches the top of the latest hill she has been forced to climb, her little half-sister still peacefully asleep in the wagon. She could barely stand, she wanted to collapse, but she had to see if her mother was still here, or to see if this could at least give her another place to look. The building was a house, it looked abandoned, like no one had visited in years, but she didn’t care, she had made it. Then she saw them, those of burning red eyes, first one pair, then two, then four, it was the monsters, like the ones her father, mother, and uncle fought, and maybe her ‘mother’ too. They came for her and her sister, a toddler asleep in the back of a wagon and a little girl who couldn’t even fight back, all she could do is scream.

  
A man runs up the hill, hoping, no, praying that he wasn’t too late, that he could get to them before they ran into bandits or strangers, or worse. He hears the growling of a Beowolf and realizes that it’s worse than he feared. He curses himself for not realizing they were missing sooner, he curses his brother-in-law for leaving the two alone for that amount of time, he curses his sister for running away, and he curses the monsters for existing. He gets the top of the hill to a grisly sight, a small child with long blonde hair, sprawled out on the ground, her right arm torn off at the shoulder, her torso gutted, and the look on her face one of pure terror. One of the beasts was standing over the wagon, its face buried in the contents that lied within. In an instant the man was upon the monsters, his weapon cutting through them like a hot knife through butter, each strike felt infused the rage he felt, rage aimed at these beasts, these monsters, these accursed things, for taking them from this world. When the last one is slain, its ‘corpse’ evaporating into mist, he runs to the wagon to see the corpse of other, her torso ripped to shreds, spine bit in two by the ghastly monster than ended her, silver eyes in a state of shock, unable to comprehend what had happened, but they still show the pain she felt in her final moments. Unable to help either them, too late to save them, he kneels next to the wagon, crying over the corpse of his youngest niece, tears flowing because they were too young to pass like this, they had a future, now they have nothing but a grave to lie in forever. He carefully picks up corpse of his oldest niece and puts her into the wagon with her younger sister and pulls them back home.

* * *

 

_Two Weeks Later_

**Unknown POV**  
“Today we are gathered to pay our respects to those who passed before their time, to those whose lights were extinguished too early. So please can we have a moment of silence to honor the passing of Yang Xiao Long and Ruby Rose.” The church is silent, everyone has a look of sadness on their faces. Mr. Xiao Long is in tears, still unable to cope with the loss of his children. Ms. Rose just keeps staring forward, I think she’s just in shock over the loss of her daughter, Ruby’s 3rd birthday was just a few weeks ago. Mr. Branwen just took another drink from his bottle, he’s probably drowning his sorrows in something, not sure what. My parents are just keep their heads down, my mother clutching me tightly, probably scared of losing me too, I don’t blame her. The pastor continues with some speech about life and death, I don’t pay attention, it’s just hard to think about this, even though I barely knew Ruby and I’ve known Yang for only a few years, it’s hard to see someone my age go like this. Mr. Xiao Long tries to do a speech, he manages to say something I can’t make out before breaking down into tears, forcing Mr. Branwen to drag him off the podium. Mr. Branwen goes next, something about this not happening if his sister hadn’t run off, didn’t know he had a sister, she probably was Yang’s mom. I just phase out the rest of the speeches, I just don’t want to think about this.  
They are buried side by side, two gravestones, one has the crest of Mr. Xiao Long; the other has the crest of Ms. Rose. Afterwards we head to Mr. Xiao Long’s house, my parents go up to him with me in tow. My father is the first to speak, “Tai, when you said that you wanted us to come back to Patch for something, I wasn’t expecting this. You sure you’re going to be ok, I mean, you were pretty quiet after Raven left, are you sure you don’t want us to stay longer.”  
“I’ll be fine Geoffery, if I’m honest, I’d be more worried about Summer; she’s been silent since Qrow told us what happened, barely eats or drinks. She’s completely shut down,” Mr. Xiao Long replies. My mother speaks, first time since before we went into the church, “She’s just trying to cope with what happened, Ruby’s birthday was only a couple weeks before this happened. Summer’s stronger than any of us ever gave her credit for, she’ll pull through, just give her some time. Also, is there still no word from Raven?”  
“None, I doubt she even knows what happened, or that this is her fault, none of this would have happened if she hadn’t left.” He pauses before continuing, “Also, Alexis, you’re right, she is strong, I just don’t want her to shut down like I did when Raven left, she was there for me back then; I just don’t think I can be there for her the same way she was for me.” Silences then washes over them, until I hear a familiar voice next to me, “Finally found you Leonard, it was really hard since everyone’s taller than both of us.” It’s Pierce, my best friend and the one person I’d expect to be cracking jokes at a time like this. His mother appears behind him, but he doesn’t notice. “Hey Pierce, Hello Mrs. Bladestrum,” Pierce looks a little bit scared when I mention his mother, but she isn’t upset, at least not yet. She notices me and the rest of the group, “Hello Leonard, and hello Tai, good to see you’re doing better than while we were in the ceremony, I never thought I’d see you cry, but there are limits for everything I guess.” “Hey Emily, and yes, there are limits to everything, even my care-free nature,” he looks around, “Where’s Richard, normally he’s easy to pick out.”  
“Richard couldn’t make it, he had a job scheduled for this week and wasn’t able to cancel, emergency mission, you know how it is Tai. He does send his condolences though.” I almost forgot about Mr. Bladestrum, the 6’3” juggernaut of a man would be hard to miss though. Mr. Xiao Long snaps me out of thought, “That sucks, wish at least one team I got close to during my time at Beacon could make it, but alas, Team GEAR and Team STRQ are short one member today.”

The gathering at the Xiao Long’s house continued, but in all of the conversation, the words of sorrow and condolences to Taiyang Xiao Long and Summer Rose were enough for one man to slip away. Qrow Branwen didn’t like this at all, after finding the bodies of the closest thing he had to kids, he had been taking it harder than Summer or Taiyang, and the flask of alcohol in his hand gave that away quite well. He hoped that some fresh air would allow him to continue this without breaking down when he was greeted by the flutter of wings. “Hello, brother. Can I come in?” It was Raven, no one had seen his sister since before she left Tai, and at the moment, he was wishing it had stayed that way. “You can, but considering how some of the grieving feel about you right now, I think you shouldn’t,” his responds, his speech slurred from the amount of alcohol he’s consumed.  
“And what do you mean by that,” Raven inquired.  
“You seriously don’t know why were gathered, your daughter is dead because of you, she found an old photo of us and when after you. The worst part is she took Summer’s daughter with her, they’re now both dead because of you. Welcome back sis, you’ve come home to a funeral.”  
“Summer’s daughter?” Her face confused by this development.  
“Oh yeah, forgot you’ve been gone for so long, when you left Tai got so distraught that Summer started staying with him, thinking you had died when you disappeared, they fell in love and had a kid, a little silver-eyed child. Yang took her when she went to find you, they both died to a pack of Beowolves that took up residence in an old home, one we cleared out during our school days.”  
“Oh, well then, tell Tai that I’m sorry, but I will let you know this brother, what I did was for more than just me, I do not regret leaving,” and like that she was gone, turned into a raven and left as swiftly as she had come. Qrow returned inside, realizing fresh air was not what he needed. Tai noticed him come inside and made his way over to him. “Qrow,” he said, slightly raising his voice to get his attention, “where have you been?” Qrow sighed heavily before replying, “Sorry, just needed to get some fresh air, but I do have something interesting to tell you,” he lowered his voice trying to make sure no one else was listening, “A little bird told me that your wife sends her condolences and apologies, but don’t even bother trying to look for her, she’s not coming back.” The look on Tai’s face was first shock, then rage as he comprehended what was said. “Give me a minute,” he says before going outside and screaming at the top of his lungs, “For Dust’s sake,” startling some of the guests. He then says quietly, “Well, hopefully this means there will be nothing else happening for a while.”

* * *

_Ten months later_

“…so let us to take a moment of silence to honor Summer Rose, who took her own life in grief, over the loss of her two daughters that struck her not even a year before.” If the church had been silent the last time, this time it was a tomb, nothing but sadness and death hung in the air. The entirety of team GEAR was here this time, mourning the loss of their fallen friend, the team leader of STRQ, one who had brought some much joy to their lives, who had been so energetic that she had been the heart of two teams. Taiyang shed no tears this time, he was filled with nothing but anger, anger at himself for not being there for Summer like she had been for him after Raven left, anger at Raven for leaving him and unintentionally setting all of this into motion, and anger at the Grimm, the monsters that took his daughters from him and the grief that had driven his second love into killing herself. He could barely control himself, slamming the podium when he tried to speak, fists clenched the entire time. This time there was no after service gathering to talk about the dead, Tai asked to be left alone this time, so alone he was left, to seethe in his own rage until days later he left his old home, promising to hunt down every Grimm on Remnant and kill them like they killed his family, mercilessly.

 

* * *

 

 

_Meanwhile, in a place unknown_

  
“Hello there, dear lover. Surprised to see me.” A female voice rings out.  
“What do you want?” A male voice responds.  
“I just have a quick question, you always talk about what you will do when your guardians fall and the smaller, more honest soul you always talk about will bring you victory when it all comes crashing down, but I must wonder, what happens when that small, honest soul falls, what then, dear lover?”  
“Then, just like when a rose bush is picked of all its petals, a bed of thorns will remain, and what happens next depends on them, as a thorn is indiscriminate, they will hurt all those who get close without permission, they will bring an end to both of us, or one of us, that is all up to them. So, you want your answer, if you have done what I think you’ve done, you have started the cycle anew and unleashed something more powerful than anything else on this world, and what happens next you can only blame yourself for creating.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So...yea, there's the reason why team RWBY never formed in this universe, I know it's dark, but this one of the largest 'what if's' in the entire series, what if Qrow never made it in time, the whole story starts from here, and it will continue.
> 
> Also, the mysterious conversation at the end, for any RWBY fan, you already have a good guess on who those two are, as for what I just implied, it's a guess, but one I'm willing to make real.
> 
> Finally, going to do a list of the more minor characters that show up in that chapter, you know the people we'll see once in a while, but not enough to warrant something in the character section(For now). For this chapter we have:
> 
> Geoffry Thorn  
> Alexis Thorn  
> Emily Bladestrum  
> Richard Bladestrum  
> Summer Rose(Deceased)  
> Taiyang Xiao Long  
> Raven Branwen  
> Qrow Branwen  
> Yang Xiao Long(Deceased)  
> Ruby Rose(Deceased)


	2. Chapter 1: Leonard Thorn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A child cursed and the one immune to the curse  
> A match made in heaven because nothing else could ever work
> 
> With Ruby Rose dead, someone has to stop dust robberies.

A boy sits in a café by the docks, it’s a quiet night in Vale. A phone pings, it’s a text from his partner. The boy opens it, a slight sigh as the text is what he was expecting.  
“You see him,” the text reads, he quickly types out a response, “Nothing down here, you got anything?”  
A reply comes back quickly, “Nope, I hope Samuel didn’t give us faulty info.” The boy smiles, knowing his partner, Elizabeth, wouldn’t let him hear the end of it if his contact had messed up his info. He gets another text shortly after, “Leonard, is he certain it’s going to be here, it’s just, you know,” Leonard knew exactly what she was talking about, Roman Torchwick had been on a string of robberies involving dust shops, what Samuel thought was the most likely next target was a little shop called ‘From Dust Till Dawn’, owned by one old man, Mr. Riku, who had always been nice to both his family and Elizabeth’s, seeing this as the target had gotten both of them a little fired up, completely ready to beat the shit out of Torchwick, and bring him in for his most recent crime spree. Unfortunately it was seeming like that wasn’t happening, no sight of Torchwick or his goons, considering the big day that was ahead of them, Leonard was about ready to ask Elizabeth if she wanted to call it quits. That when he spotted him, the bowler hat and squad of goons dressed in all black made him quite easy to spot, the cane made it much easier too. He sends a quick text, “Found him,”  
“You sure it’s him?”  
“Depends, you know anyone else in their late 20’s/early 30’s who can pull off a cane?”  
“Fair enough,” he knew Elizabeth was going to be ready in seconds, and waited until Torchwick and company were far enough away before getting up.

* * *

 

Roman Torchwick always acted like he owned the place, which for the most part he did, with connections from ports to the shady side of town, he knew just about everything going on in this city, but ever since he was hired by that mysterious women and her flunkies for this string of dust robberies, he had been for the first time in a while, unsure. He didn’t have time to think about right now, it was heist time. He walked in, his goons looking around while he tapped out cigar ash on to the floor. “Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a dust shop open this late,” he inquires, the goon on his left threatening the shopkeeper. The old man throws his hands up, realizing what he’s in, “Please, just take my lien and leave.”  
He shushes the man, “Calm down, we’re not here for your money,” he turns to his men, “Grab the Dust.”  
His men spring to work, one of them grabs a case, gesturing for various uncut crystals, his new employer says uncut ones are more powerful, not like he would know; the others grab canisters and start filling them with raw Dust. As he admired one of the crystals they were supposed to be taking, checking to see if it was the right quality, he thought about his job, this was the fourth shop in a month, and he still had another three or so to hit in the next month, this was getting out of hand, even for him.

 

Leonard shook himself as he walked towards the store, he just had to act like he didn’t see what was going on inside, and hoped that they tried to fight him, he couldn’t go all vigilante on this, even though he wanted to. He strolled up to the store and opened the door, “Hey, Mr. Riku, did Elizabeth’s dust shipment come in or…” he then noticed Torchwick and his men, “I see that you’re busy, sorry to bother you, I’ll just be going.”  
One of Torchwick’s goons grabbed his shoulder, in an instant the goon was thrown through the doorway, sprawled out on the street, probably had little Nevermores flying around his head. The remaining goons turned to Torchwick, a collective look of ‘really?’ on their faces.  
“Okkkk. Get him,” one of Torchwick’s men tackled Leonard into the street, only to be kicked into the air as Leonard easily threw him off, the other two came at Leonard, blades drawn. Leonard downed them easily, with a few quick punches the two men dropped like flies. A shot goes off, it sounds like a cannon was just fired, dropping the third guy behind him with a stun round. ‘She always does have my back,’ he thinks as the fourth guy lands at Torchwick’s feet, finally done with his journey to the sky.  
“You were worth every cent. Truly you were,” Torchwick mutters before turning to Leonard, “Well, while you seem to be quite the interesting character, I must be taking my leave.”  
He raised his cane as he spoke, then the bottom popped opened and he fired a shot that could’ve leveled a small building, Leonard rolled back, barely dodging the explosion that followed. The blast was so powerful that it even knocked Elizabeth off balance, by the time either of them recovered, Torchwick was already halfway up a ladder to the roof of a nearby building. Leonard checked to see if Mr. Riku was ok and then gave chase.  
“Get back here,” he shouted as he reached the top of the ladder, Torchwick turned, a massive ship rose up behind him, its powerful spotlight blinding Leonard, when the light got out of his eyes, Torchwick was already onboard.  
“End of the line,” he shouted before throwing a Dust crystal at Leonard’s feet and firing another shot. Leonard braced himself, but he didn’t go flying, when he looked up he saw a tall blonde in what looked like a teacher’s outfit standing in front of him, a barrier of energy blocking the explosion that could have killed him. She then swung her weapon, it looked like a small stick, probably wand, shooting out a barrage of arcane missiles, battering the escaping ship. Torchwick struggled to stay balanced, making his way to the cockpit, the mysterious blonde huntress fired a pulse of energy creating a storm above the ship that rained icicles down on it. Then out stepped someone else, Leonard couldn’t see much of them, except for the heels, so they were probably female. The new figure on the ship shot a blast of energy at the huntress, it was easily deflected, but then the ground beneath her erupted, forcing her to flip out of the way, using the debris from the explosion, the huntress created a construct of some kind, it whirled around the ship, taking several blasts from the mysterious figure before splitting into three separate constructs, that would’ve continued to barrage the ship if the mysterious figure hadn’t unleash a massive wave of energy, disintegrating everything around the ship. Then there was the sound of a cannon heard over Leonard’s shoulder, the mysterious figure blocking the shots with her hand. She then waved her hand, causing the ground beneath to erupt again, allowing them to escape, if it weren’t for the huntress, Leonard was certain he would’ve gotten hurt, he silently cursed himself for getting sloppy. He turned to see that Elizabeth had made it too the roof, her jacket flowing behind her, the rifle that was almost twice as tall as her now propped up on it stock, before looking at the huntress, giving them both a look that made the smile on his face instantly disappear.

* * *

 

In what felt like an instant, the two of them were seated behind a table, the new huntress pacing behind them as she started to rant, “I hope you two realize that your actions tonight will not be taken lightly, you put yourselves and others in great danger,” Leonard and Elizabeth looked down sheepishly, both knew they couldn’t argue with that. She continued, “If it were up to me, you two would be sent home with a pat on the back, and a slap on the wrist,” she slammed her weapon down on the table to emphasis that last part. She then paused, rubbing the bridge of her nose before continuing again, “But there is someone who would like to meet you.” She stepped to the side as a man in a green outfit and reading glasses with gray hair stepped out of the doorway behind her, he was carrying a mug of some sort, a couple glasses of water, and a folder. “Leonard Thorn,” he leaned forward, looking at his face, “you have gold eyes.”  
“Ok…” responded a confused Leonard, just shrugging at Elizabeth.  
The man continued, putting the folder down on the table as he spoke, “So, you continue to be quite the interesting person, for someone who doesn’t use weapons or dust, you managed to be at the top of your class at Signal Academy, you had near-perfect scores in almost all your classes, you even could have gotten into nearly any school outside of Vale without any trouble, but you still chose Beacon over any of the others, why?”  
“It’s where my parents went, they said that it was the best school when they went, and from what they’ve seen, it hasn’t changed. I want to be the best I can be huntsman, so I chose the best.”  
“Alright then, in that case, I assume you know what this is,” the man says, gesturing to the folder. Leonard looks through the folder, “This is my application to Beacon, how did you…” he stops himself mid-question, now realizing who he’s talking to, “Ok…is there something wrong with my application?”  
The man gets a slight smile on his face, “No, there was nothing wrong with your application, I just wanted to ask you something involving your transcript.” Leonard froze, knowing what was coming next, “It’s just that all of these grades are off the charts, except for one, ‘Semblance Training’, normally doing bad in one class is normal, but we looked at it, and every year it’s the same grade, an exact grade, and I’d like to point out that this grade was enough to shoot down your transcript, you should have never been accepted to this school, but we then found the notes.” Leonard was speechless, if it weren’t for the fact that there were others in the room, Elizabeth would have taken a picture, as his face was priceless. The man continued, “I don’t know how you managed to get Qrow to write these notes for you, but you should really thank him next time you see him, as his notes managed to get you into Beacon even though you shouldn’t have.” Leonard snapped back into reality, “Alright, did he have to tell you why those notes were written?”  
“He did, which brings me to my next question. Ms. Pavlichenko, do you know everything about your partner?”  
“I know more than you do, sir, and trust me, I am more than equipped to handle him,” Elizabeth almost snapped at him, probably a little annoyed she had been kind of left out of the conversation.  
The man looked a little stunned by the response, as he picked up the folder, he put down the cups of water and spoke, “Alright then, I’m glad we had this talk. I expect to see both of you at school tomorrow, until then good night.”  
They spoke simultaneously, “Thank you, Professor Ozpin.”

* * *

 

_That night_

Leonard couldn’t sleep, during the conversation with Ozpin, there was something in the back of his head, urging him to do it, to deactivate the gloves and kill Ozpin. The voice was taunting him, telling him that Ozpin would just use him like a weapon, that he would be treated like a monster, just like he was when he first got his semblance, that the only way he could be truly free is if he left to seek ‘her’, still wasn’t sure who this ‘her’ was, but it bugged him, he thought this would have gone away after a while, but it came back during the conversation. He rolled over and looked at Elizabeth, her bright red locks in her face, she made a little noise when she breathed out. He scooted a little closer to her and the voice silenced, and just like back then, the girl who was immune calmed him, the girl he fell in love with, who said she would always be there for him, his true partner, and with that he was able to truly sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yea, the shopkeeper got a name, leaving him anonymous felt odd, so the old guy we frequently saw in the first three seasons now has a name, but I didn't want to try creating a name for him, so I chose one off of something else I had lying around, we might make a reference to it in the future, consider it one of the few external references to other things I'll be making.  
> And yes, there is a reason why two people entering high school are sleeping together, and no, they are not doing that, ya nasty(Ok...they will not be doing it in the story, ya still nasty).
> 
> And now the minor characters for this chapter:
> 
> Samuel Church  
> Mr. Riku(shopkeeper)  
> Qrow Branwen(only a mention)


	3. Chapter 2: A Shining Light

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> On the first day at Beacon, teams BLZE and SNOW finally meet their respective teammates, little hints at CrossHares and a couple of personal couples I created.
> 
> Also, a poem for team BLZE.
> 
> A black beast filled with pain and regret  
> A cursed child whose touch is death  
> A dragon queen with pale scales  
> A shot rings out to end the tale
> 
> Once you see three, the fourth will come easily.

Elizabeth kept staring at it, as much as she should be thinking about her first day at Beacon, she couldn’t get this out of her head. She was used to having dreams like the one she had had last night, but the poems that came with them always stumped her and she hated it. Beaten by her subconscious, she couldn’t stand it, so while she sat on the air bus, the world going by, she had her face buried into her notebook constantly scanning her latest poem, trying to understand the meaning. She then heard music playing in her left ear, it was some upbeat techno of some sort, which meant she knew who was staring over her shoulder.  
“Whatcha doin’,” he asked playfully. She wanted to be annoyed with him because he was staring over her shoulder, but knowing him, she knew there was a reason.  
“It’s nothing, just getting a little too into old poems,” she tried to play it off, hoping not to worry him.  
She could hear the mock insult in his voice, “Elizabeth Pavlichenko, we have known each other for how long?”  
“Eleven years.”  
“And how much of that time have we been dating?”  
“Ten.”  
“Do you really think you can just tell me that you looking intently at a new poem is nothing?”  
“No.”  
His normal voice came back as she responded, “Ok, just making sure, it’s just you’ve been looking over that for the past fifteen minutes, and I do know it’s a new one because I’ve never seen it before,” He paused, “So, I want to help, I don’t like seeing you get into a rut over these things, so tell me about the dream.”  
She took a deep breath, still not certain of what her dream was, but it was nice to have someone she could talk, someone she could trust.

“It started with a black background, then three white slash marks appeared and I heard someone saying goodbye to someone else, I think the name was Adam or Alan. Then there was you, I saw your face from when you were younger, you looked terrified. Then there was a fire and I heard a female shouting, ‘Get away from her.’ Finally there was a shot, it was so loud, almost like a cannon, I’ve never heard anything like it.”  
Leonard thought about what was all said for a bit before speaking, “Alright, so not even knowing the lines of the poem, I can tell you that last one was you, I know you wear earplugs when you use your rifle, but it basically sounds like a cannon when you use it. As for the poem in its entirety, it sounds like a team, I mean, unless they changed the rules recently, that sounds like a team of four.”  
Elizabeth thought on it, Leonard had been reading over her shoulder, so he read the new poem as well, and the more she thought about it, the more it made sense. Who the other two would be, she wasn’t sure, but they would show themselves today.

Leonard proceeded to read off the poem, mostly to help him remember it;

A black beast filled with pain and regret  
A cursed child whose touch is death  
A dragon queen with pale scales  
A shot rings out to end the tale

They look at each other, trying to decide what the two lines not about them meant. Leonard is the first to speak, “So, I’m thinking Faunas teammates.” Elizabeth thought about it, she was perfectly fine with having Faunas teammates, but with the stigma associated with them ever since the White Fang turned violent five years ago, she wasn’t sure if there were going to be any Faunas at the school. She scanned the rest of the bus, looking around instantly realizing her thoughts were unwarranted, seeing a pair of brown rabbit ears poke up from among the people gathered on the bus. Leonard whispered in her ear, “You actually missed it, earlier the rabbit got caught checking out the girl in the beret.” Elizabeth looked around again, seeing the girl Leonard was talking about, recognizing her as Coco Adel, she had been on the cover of the latest ‘Huntress Fashion’ magazine, and several other issues, “Leonard, do you seriously not know who she is?”  
Leonard had a face of confusion, “No…should I?” Elizabeth wanted to slap her boyfriend for that comment, but she wasn’t surprised, he was never one for fashion sense, heck, with the only reason his gloves weren’t an eyesore with whatever he wore was because she had taken him clothes shopping immediately after getting them.  
“That’s Coco Adel, she’s a famous Huntress Fashion model, and the heiress to Adel Conglomerate, seriously, how do you not recognize her.”  
“I’m used to seeing her holding that mini-gun of her’s, didn’t see it…though now that I think about it, that’s probably what the suitcase is.”  
Elizabeth sighed, her boyfriend was such a numbskull sometimes, she decided to continue the previous topic instead, “Alright, so while the rabbit Faunas could fit the first line, I think the only thing she’s filled with currently is embarrassment for getting caught, doesn’t seem like a likely candidate. Remember, while Faunas could be the more likely candidate, it could be anyone since the lines may be speaking in a more metaphorical sense.”  
Leonard’s gaze was now fixated on something on the right side of the bus, “Ok, but for the third line, let’s just stick with the Faunas theory.”  
Elizabeth’s gaze followed his to see her, a pale girl with short brown hair and clothes that looked like they were from Vacuo, on her back were what looked like a couple of large bumps, and then they moved, spreading to reveal a pair of leathery wings. “Holy crap,” she whispered, quickly turning to Leonard she continued, “I thought they were just a legend.” Leonard smiled back at her, “With us, I’ve gotten to point that when someone tells us something a legend, I just think it’s more that no one’s seen proof yet. Also, look who you’re dating, why start believing in myths when I might as well be one.” She looked up at him, a small smile forming as she did, “Good point.”

Just like that the news, which had been running a story about how the White Fang had interrupted a peaceful protest, was interrupted and replaced by a hologram on a blonde women;  
“Hello, and welcome to Beacon, my name is Glynda Goodwitch. You are among a privileged few who have received the honor of being selected to attend this prestigious academy! Our world is experiencing an incredible time of piece, and as future Huntsman and Huntresses, it is your duty to uphold it. You have demonstrated the courage needed for such a task, and now, it is our turn to provide you with the knowledge and the training to protect our world. Welcome to Beacon Academy!”

The hologram disappeared, replaced with a stunning visage of the school, the entire ship stopped whatever they were doing to stare at the school, which towered above everything, including Signal Academy. Instantly the heard someone gagging at the sight, they looked over to see a blonde boy in armor trying to keep himself from throwing up all over the place. Leonard backed away, letting the boy access to the trash can, “Well, the view isn’t for everyone.”

 

Once everyone was off the ship Leonard and Elizabeth looked around, the saw people they knew from Signal getting off other air buses, that included Cardin Winchester, seeing him made Elizabeth’s skin crawl, he had hit on her a couple times at Signal, calling Leonard a coward for skipping semblance training, it was actually Leonard who had to pull Elizabeth away from him just to keep them from fighting. She then smirked a little bit after remembering how quickly he had left them both alone after Leonard wiped the floor with him in combat training. Leonard meanwhile was looking around, seeing all the new faces, trying to look for people he would recognize, then he noticed a girl in all white being followed by a cart of luggage, he instantly shuddered, why was she here, couldn’t she had just stayed in Atlus like the rest of her family. “Well,” he said, voice full of resent, “looks like the Schnee Dust Company is moving to Vale.” Elizabeth looked at him, confused by his statement, “What makes you say that?” He gestured to the luggage cart, “Because the heiress is going to be here.” Elizabeth shuddered, she was thinking the same thing he was, they both despised the Schnee Family because of how much responsibility they held in the creation of what the White Fang had become, also because they just hated the thought of having to associate with someone like that.

 

* * *

 

_Meanwhile_

  
“Can you watch where you’re going?!” Without looking where he was going, staring at the school, still trying to take it all in, Orion hadn’t seen the cart of luggage coming his way, he walked straight into it, sending it everywhere. The girl yelling at him was beautiful, ivory tresses flowed out of a ponytail that popped off her head, the dress was revealing enough to tease the eyes, but covered enough to keep it that way. All she was missing was a crown and then she could 100% be a princess. Now only if she didn’t start off sounding like such a bitch, he was kind of at fault though.  
“Sorry.”  
“Sorry?! Do you have any idea the damage you could’ve caused?”  
Orion was speechless, trying to get off the luggage he was currently on top of.  
“Gimme that,” she demanded, grabbing the suitcase he was moving, “This is Dust, mined and purified from the Schnee Quarry.”  
“Uhh…”  
“What are you, brain dead? Dust! Fire, water, lightning, energy!”  
Orion was trying not to sneeze as she shook a bottle of fire dust, sending a cloud of it everywhere. She continued, “Are you even listening to me? Is any of this sinking in? What do you have to say for yourself?!”  
Not being able hold it in any longer, Orion sneezed, setting off the fire dust, spraying an explosion of fire all over the poor girl chewing him out. “Bless me,” was his response. The bottle of dust went flying, landing at the feet of two girls, one in a light blue dress with a white overcoat, her long, brown hair flowing down her back, the other wore a light brown jacket and a black skirt, brown-ish red hair tied in a bun.  
“Unbelievable! This is exactly the kind of thing I was talking about!”  
Orion couldn’t do much but apologize, since her getting temporarily covered in soot was his fault, “I’m really, really, sorry.”  
She continued, “Ugh! You complete dolt! What are you even doing here? You look more like a cowboy than someone attending combat school. We’re here to fight monsters, not sing campfire songs.”  
Orion was getting quite upset at this point, “I said I was sorry, Princess!” At this point the two girls who found the bottle of dust walked up, the girl in the blue dress spoke, “It’s Heiress, actually. Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, one of the largest producers of energy in the world.”  
“Finally, some recognition,” Weiss said with a smug look on her face.  
The girl in the brown coat then spoke, a little bit of an accent in her voice, “The same company infamous for its controversial labor forces and questionable business partners.”  
Orion snickered as Weiss stuttered trying to comprehend what was just said before grabbing the bottle of dust and stomping off, leaving her servants to clean up her luggage. Orion then turned to try and thank them, but they had also walked off, hands intertwined. Orion thought about that last part and then just shrugged, they were nicer seeming than the bitchy heiress, so he didn’t care that they liked each other.

 

* * *

 

_One hour later_

 

After looking for the school auditorium, they all filed in, Leonard and Elizabeth sitting next to each other, the dragon Faunas in the back of the room, sitting next to a girl with red hair in a ponytail, she was busy checking out the blonde boy who nearly threw up on the air bus, who was busy trying to find an open spot and trying not to look completely lost, which he was. Meanwhile Orion was trying to sit as far away from Weiss as possible. There was a slightly louder than normal drone of noise across the room as friends tried catching up and others tried to find new people to talk to. All of the sudden there was loud noise, almost like there was a small amount of feedback on the announcement system.  
Professor Ozpin went to speak, “Ahem…I’ll keep this brief. You have traveled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and acquire new skills. And when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you and all I see is wasted energy in need of purpose, direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step.” With everyone thoroughly confused, Professor Goodwitch took over, “You will gather in the ballroom tonight. Tomorrow, your initiation begins. Be ready. You are dismissed!”  
Leonard spoke up first, “Well he was as cryptic as ever.”

 

* * *

 

_That evening_

 

Leonard and Elizabeth found a space off to the side, trying to keep out of everyone else’s way, watching the people go by, Vomit-Boy as they started calling him was in a onesie, which got strange looks from everyone, Leonard just assumed it was comfortable. With everything going on, Elizabeth had decided to pop open her notebook again and start looking over the latest poem, looking for anyone that seems like they would match well with the first line of the poem. She had to light one of the candelabra that was lying around, its soft glow allowing her to read in the dimly lit ballroom. “Ahem,” she heard a small cough of someone trying to get her attention, she looked up to see a girl with long black hair in a black kimono, for some reason she still wore a black bow on her head, despite of how late it was, in one hand she held a book, it was one that Elizabeth recognized, ‘The Man with Two Souls’, good story, an odd one, but it was good, under her other arm she had her sleeping bag and a backpack. “Is it ok if I use that as well,” she asked, gesturing to the light source.  
“Sure, it’s not like there are many of these to go around.”  
The girl put her sleeping bag down, leaned up against the wall and proceeded to read. The three of them were soon joined by the dragon Faunas from earlier, who asked if she could join them since they seemed cool, all three looked at each other, Leonard and Elizabeth didn’t care and the black haired girl said nothing, so the dragon, introducing herself as Zinnea Draconov, laid her bedroll down next to the black haired girl and laid down to relax. She then noticed the notebook that Elizabeth was reading.  
“Is that a song notebook,” she asked, a question that almost caused Elizabeth to hide the notebook, but she realized it was too late to play it off. “Not really, I use to write down poems that come to me, I usually look at them trying to make sense of them afterwards.”  
“Oooh, that sounds interesting, could you read us one?”  
Elizabeth glanced at Leonard, who nodded, they both knew that at least Zinnea would be on their team, so why not share a little, “Alright, this one is called ‘Four Seasons’;”  


Winter is white SNOW, fresh upon the ground  
Spring is the JNPR tree in bloom, brightening the world  
Summer is the BLZE of heat, bearing down on all  
Fall is CFVY with friends and family as the year winds down

“How’s that?”  
“Beautiful,” Zinnea turned to the black haired girl, “what do you…you know what, I never got your name.”  
“It’s Blake.”  
“Alright, what do you think Blake?”  
“It was great, can we hear one more?”  
Elizabeth thought about it, and decided to go with it, team BLZE was together, even if it wasn’t official yet, so she deciding to do the one from this morning. “Alright, one more, then we should probably call it a night. This is called ‘Guardians of Summer’;”

A black beast filled with pain and regret  
A cursed child whose touch is death  
A dragon queen with pale scales  
A shot rings out to end the tale

And with a look of confusion on the faces of Blake and Zinnea, Leonard blew out the candelabra and darkness took the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A lighter chapter compared to the last two, only because that it's the first day at Beacon, got to start slow. Got all OC's introduced this chapter, even if two of them are still unnamed.
> 
> And as always, the minor characters that showed up in this chapter;  
> Cardin Winchester(what a fucking ass)


	4. Chapter 3: First Step of Many

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Initiation at Beacon Acadamy begins with the introduction of even more old favorite. Jaune continues to fail at being smooth with Weiss, and even while writing this I still can't tell if he was oblivious to Pyrrha's true feelings or not.

Opening his eyes, a young boy sees a girl in his face, her turquoise eyes wide and her short orange hair sticking out in several directions.  
“Wake up lazybutt,” she said, her tone as joyful as ever. The young boy sighed as his companion continued to be full of energy as was the usual for her. After announcing it was morning three or four times, she started excitedly ranting as they went about their morning routine, talking about how she couldn’t believe they had been at Beacon for a full day, mentioning how long they had been friends, specifying that as she always does, he never did understand why. She was hoping they ended up on the same team, suggesting several plans to make it that way, “How about a signal, a secret signal so we can find each other,” she paused, “Can you imitate a sloth?”  
The boy glanced at her as he checked his weapons, “Nora.”  
“Yes, Ren,” she quickly responded.  
“I don’t think sloths make a lot of noise.”  
Nora thought about it for a second, then her eyes lit up, “That’s why it’s perfect. No one will suspect we’re working together.”  
Ren shook his head, “Come on Nora. Let’s go.” The two proceeded out of the locker room, with Nora talking about not being ‘together’ together and then giddily following her comrade.  
Leonard and Elizabeth looked at each other, “Wonder what they’re so worked up about?” Leonard shrugged to Elizabeth’s inquiry, they seemed nice, but the orange haired girl slightly freaked Leonard out, she was a little too cheery. Leonard though had a slightly bigger worry, a ‘what if’ that he wanted to talk about.  
“Elizabeth, I know that your poems haven’t been wrong before, but this is actually happen, just what if we don’t have everything go how you ‘predicted’.”  
Elizabeth tried her best to not actually be angry, but she couldn’t help faking the emotion just to tease her boyfriend, “Leonard Thorn, my lovely partner, are you saying that you doubt me?”  
Leonard got a little bit flustered, “No, of course not that would be…”  
As they were talking they didn’t notice the blonde boy walking towards them, who accidently finished Leonard’s sentence, “…ridiculous! There is no way I put my gear in locker 636 yesterday, I would’ve remembered having to count that high.” He continued trying desperately to find his things before initiation.

 

* * *

 

_Meanwhile_

 

Weiss Schnee was trying to talk to a certain redhead, normally Weiss wouldn’t try to start a conversation with a random stranger, especially not at a place like this, but this girl was a definite exception.  
“So, Pyrrha, have you given any thought to whose team you would like to be on? I’m sure everyone must be eager to unite with such a strong, well-known individual, such as yourself.”  
Pyrrha looked up from her locker, just having grabbed her stuff for initiation, “Hmm…I’m not quite sure. I was planning on letting the chips fall where they may.”  
“Well, I was thinking maybe we could be on a team together,” Weiss suggested.  
“Well, that sounds grand.”  
Weiss immediately was having inner thoughts about how unstoppable a pair they could be, her being the smartest girl in class, paired with one of the strongest people in the class. Her devious little plan involved popularity, perfect grades, awards, and all that. Her train of thought was interrupted when someone bumped into her.  
“Do you mind,” the anger already in her voice thinking it was the same guy from yesterday. Turning around she saw that it was a different person, a blonde boy in armor who was still looking for his locker. The boy turned around, prepared to apologize, his apology died in throat seeing the snow angel in front of him.  
It took him a couple seconds to regain his composure before apologizing, “I’m so sorry! I didn’t see you there, though now we are talking, my name is Jaune Arc. May I get to know yours Snow Angel?” Weiss immediately wanted to hit him, but she tried to remain calm, hopefully she would be able to deter him gently, “My name is Weiss Schnee.” Jaune’s mind raced when he heard that, a Schnee, he had to try this.  
“Well, Weiss, if you want to be on a team, I would be happy to have you by my side, just the two of us.” Pyrrha then spoke up, “Actually, I think teams are composed of four students each, so-.” Jaune immediately interrupted her, “You don’t say, well hotstuff, play your cards right and maybe could join up with the winning team.”  
Weiss immediately put herself between Jaune and Pyrrha, trying to keep him from hitting on her as well, “Jaune, is it? Do you have any idea who you are talking to?”  
“Not in the slightest Snow Angel.”  
“This is Pyrrha,” Pyrrha waved at him from behind Weiss, “She graduated top of her class at Sanctum.”  
“Never heard of it,” Jaune looked confused on where this conversation was going.  
Weiss scoffed, “She’s won the Mistral Regional Tournament four years in a row…A new record!”  
Jaune looked even more confused, “The what?”  
Weiss started shaking her arms, furious at how ignorant one person could be, “She’s on the front of every Pumpkin Pete’s Marshmallow Flakes box!”  
Jaune gasped, “That’s you? They only do that for star athletes and cartoon characters!”  
Pyrrha blushed a little, “Yeah, it was pretty cool. Sadly the cereal isn’t very good for you.”  
Weiss stepped back in, resisting the urge to smack Jaune upside the head, “So after hearing all of this, do you really think you’re in a position to ask her to be on your team?”  
Jaune lowered his head, feeling a little ashamed, “I guess not…Sorry.”  
Pyrrha tried to lift his spirits a bit, “Actually Jaune, I think you would make a great leader.”  
He perked right up again, “D’oh, stop it!”  
Weiss immediately tried to shoot him down again, “Seriously, please stop it. This kind of behavior should not be encouraged.”  
Jaune stopped her, his confidence back, “Sounds like Pyrrha’s on board for team Jaune. Spots are filling up quickly,” he leaned in towards Weiss, “Now I’m not supposed to do this, but maybe I could pull some strings. Find a place for you. What do you say?”  
Weiss tried to push Jaune away from her, “Alright, that’s a bit too close! Pyrrha, a little help, please?”  
Next thing Jaune knew he was flying across the locker room, spear imbedded in the hood of his jacket. “I’m sorry,” Pyrrha called out.

The intercom then spoke, it was Professor Goodwitch. “Will all first year students please report to Beacon Cliff for initiation? Again, all first year students report to Beacon Cliff immediately.”  
“It was nice meeting you,” Pyrrha said as she grabbed her spear as she and Weiss left, leaving Jaune seated on the floor. Leonard and Elizabeth had watched the whole thing, Leonard slightly freaking out because he knew he was probably going to have to fight Pyrrha at some point, but knew if they did one of the would be forced to go all-out, and that was a sight Leonard never wanted to see. Elizabeth spoke as Leonard offered Jaune a hand, “Having so trouble there, Ladykiller?”  
“I don’t understand. My dad is all women look for is confidence. Where did I go wrong?”  
Leonard spoke, “Calling her ‘Snow Angel’ wasn’t the best start. Alright man, see you on the cliffs.”

 

* * *

 

_One hour later_

 

After Jaune finally made it there, a near fifteen minutes behind everyone else, the students were told to stand metal squares, one per person. Ozpin decided to give a little speech before they began, “For years you have trained to become warriors. And today your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest,” he gestured to the expanse of green below the cliff. Professor Goodwitch continued the speech, “Now, I’m sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of teams. Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates…Today.” Ozpin picked it up again, “These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon. So it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well. That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years.” Some of the students were quite startled by this, someone signed something that Leonard made out as ‘what if I can’t see’, and Nora had a look of ‘I told you so’ on her face. Ozpin continued, “After you have partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path, or you will die. You will be monitored and graded for the duration of your initiation. But our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path, containing several relics. Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. We will regard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?”  
Jaune raised his hand, trying to get Ozpin’s attention. He was partially ignored as Ozpin asked everyone to take their positions. Jaune then just spat it out anyways, “Uh sir? I’ve got, um, a question. So this landing strategy thing, uh what is it? You’re like dropping us off or something?”  
“No. you will be falling.”  
“Oh, I see. So, like, did you hand out parachutes for us?”  
“No. You will be using your own landing strategy.”  
Leonard rolled his eyes as he was catapulted off, followed immediately by Elizabeth, with everyone except Jaune having been launched already.  
Jaune still not understanding the situation he was in continued asking his questions, “So, um, what exactly is a landing strateGYYYYY,” he screamed as he was launched into the forest, arms flailing as he sailed over the two teacher’s heads, Ozpin sipping from his mug as he watched them all sail off into the distance.

 

The students for the most part landed safely, Pyrrha smashed through several tree trunks before landing on a sturdy branch, then using that vantage point to throw her spear at Jaune again, pinning him to something as she heard him thank her in the distance. Ren used the blades attached to his pistols to slide down the side of a tree, looking up to here the sound of a shotgun being used to tear apart foliage, clearing a path for Orion who then popped the hatchet blade out of the stock of his shotgun, allowing himself to get down as his own pace as he latched to the side of a tree. Meanwhile Leonard had popped the claws in his gloves, using them to scale the side of a tree, he then ran, hoping he did the math right, he stood, arms outstretched, moments later a body landed in his arms, he was forced to brace himself a little, forgetting how heavy the rifle was. In his arms was Elizabeth, wrapped in her blue jacket, arms holding her rifle, currently collapsed into its bolt action form, the expression on her face was one that was telling him not to make one of his shitty puns. Leonard rolled his eyes, “Fine, no jokes about me carrying you like this someday, however I am hoping I don’t have to carry the gun as well.”  
Elizabeth looked at him slightly confused, “Romanova isn’t that heavy.”  
“Since you’re the one whose been carrying that thing for the last 5 or so years, I wouldn’t expect you to notice, but your dad called it Iron Romanova for a reason, the thing weighs a ton. You’ve just gotten used to it.”  
He kissed her quickly as he let her down, “So partner, shall we get going?”  
“Why not?” They headed north, both smiling as they got moving.

Orion had hit the ground running, hoping he could get to the temple fast enough that he could get there and then just wait for a partner to come to him, and if he ran into someone along the way, hopefully they could be partners. He was silently praying for anyone by her, he didn’t want to be paired with Schnee for the next four years. As he ran headlong, he saw a figure step out from behind a tree, he silently cursed as he slowed down and came face-to-face with Weiss Schnee. They stared at each other for a few seconds, a slight smirk coming to Orion’s face as he was reminded of how beautiful she looked, but Weiss was having none of it, as she wandered off into the woods. Orion thought about going after her, but since he didn’t exactly want this to happen either he decided to stay, if she wasn’t back in 5 minutes, he was going to keep going on his own. Weiss trudged on, until she heard complaining in a nearby tree, only to look up and see Jaune pinned to the tree above her by Pyrrha’s spear. He looked down and laughed nervously, causing Weiss to immediately turn around, because while she disliked being on a team with the clumsy mountain that she had made eye contact with, she would rather have that than a partnership with the boy who had called her ‘Snow Angel’. She came back to Orion to find him leaning up against a tree, “Oh, you actually came back…do I really want to know?” She shook her head as she trudged off, Orion following behind. She spoke in a frustrated tone as she walked, “By no means does this make us friends.”  
“I am perfectly fine with that,” responded Orion. They then heard growling in the forest as red eyes appeared from all sides.

Jaune was still stuck to the tree, trying to pull out the spear that had pinned him to a surface, when he heard someone else beneath him.  
“Jaune,” a voice called out, he looked down to see Pyrrha, “Do you…have any spots left on your team?”  
Jaune crossed his arms as he dangled from the spear, “Very funny.” He looked back down to see her smiling at her, and he couldn’t help but smile back  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Out of the 16 characters we will be covering, only 6 have paired up, the rest will be in the coming chapters. 
> 
> Also, no minor characters in this one, or probably the next two, maybe three.


	5. Chapter 4: Emerald Forest Part 1: Pair by Pair

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The trek through the Emerald Forest grows increasingly dangerous. But now everyone has a pair, all shall be well for those in pairs.

Zinnea Draconov had a bit easier time with the launch pads than most students, while they had a landing strategy, she had a different response, her wings. The leathery pair on her back were spread wide, air flowing around them, it felt great, she hadn’t had an opportunity like this in so long, a chance to spread her wings and soar. So that’s what she was currently doing, keeping herself air born by occasionally flapping her wings and gliding around the top of the forest to see if she could spot anyone she might want to partner with. That’s when she heard an Ursa roar, and quickly looked around, trying to see what had caused that, what she found was a girl in black and white fighting two of the bear-like Grimm. Zinnea recognized the girl as Blake, the one she met the night before, the one who she wanted to get to know better, the one who had that look in her eyes, one of a past she wanted to learn more about, and to help make right the wrongs done to her.

Blake was preoccupied with one of the Ursa, so much so that she didn’t see the other one about strike behind her, then as the first one fell to her last strike, she turned to see the second one raised up, about to slash down on her with a huge paw. Blake braced herself for the strike, but instead felt a shockwave as something slammed down in front of her. As she rose from the defensive stance she had put herself in she saw exactly what had happened, the Ursa that should have ripped into her with its claws, was now buried into the ground, slammed into the ground by the pale dragon that had saved her life, she was awestruck, Blake had toyed with the idea of trying to team up with her, but never thought it would happen, especially not like this. Her heart did a little marathon when Zinnea looked at her, a small smile on her lips as she offered a hand.   
“You know I could’ve taken them both,” Blake said as she accepted the hand.   
“I know, it’s just I’d rather to see you come out unscathed than waiting for you to finish your fight on your own,” Zinnea said, her grin still on her face. Blake had to fight the urge to kiss her, the interest in her because she was another Faunas had turned into an attraction right there, but Blake was worried about the backlash of that kind of action, so instead she just smiled back, then the two of them went off to find the Forest Temple.

 

While two of the three Faunas had found their partners, the third one was having a bit rougher time. Velvet had easily landed from her launch, finding a large enough branch to perch on, but with the uniqueness of her weapon, she couldn’t get down. She silently cursed herself for not ‘charging’ it the previous day, but she was so caught up with everything that happened that she had completely forgotten. Currently she was hoping that whoever found her was nice, she was still secretly hoping that she found her, the girl in the beret from yesterday morning, the one who when she realized Velvet had been checking her out, instead of either ignoring it or calling her out, she started posing, Velvet had thought they were just stretching exercises until during one pose, the girl turned and from over her sunglasses winked at Velvet. She was blushing just thinking about it, trying to not think about how suggestive some of those poses were.   
“Hello, are you ok?”  
Velvet snapped out of her daydream and looked over the side of the branch, hoping it was her. She was slightly disappointed when she saw that instead it was a boy in armor, his massive sword leaned up against the tree.   
“Fine for the most part, it’s just that I can’t down,” she blushed a little after saying that, embarrassed by the fact she was stuck up here, under normal circumstances she could get down, but there were no branches nearby that she could actually jump to and she hadn’t ‘charged’ her weapon recently.  
“Alright,” the boy yelled, “I’ll come get you, just stay put.”  
Velvet puffed her cheeks, ‘stay put’ he said, it’s not like she could go anywhere. It took a couple of minutes, but she then heard a huff next to her. The boy who had said he was going to get her down was already at the branch she was stuck on, he had light-ish brown skin and very short, black hair, almost like a buzz cut.  
He offered her a hand, “Well, climb on.” Velvet was confused, until she actually did, realizing that her partner was a behemoth of a person, at least 7 feet tall, probably more, he could’ve easily carried an entire team on his back if they were light enough.  
As they were climbing down, she asked for his name.  
“Yatsuhashi Daichi, and what’s yours?”  
“Velvet Scarlatina.”  
“Well, Velvet, I wasn’t expecting to get a Faunas as a partner, but as long as you don’t get stuck in anymore trees, I think we’ll get along fine.”  
Velvet’s cheeks puffed again until he heard him laughing, it made her annoyance fade away, replaced by the happiness accompanied by his laugh. As they got down, Yatsuhashi asked how she got stuck up there in the first place.   
“I forgot to charge my weapon,” Velvet said sheepishly as she pulled the camera that helped ‘charge’ her weapon out of its carrying case, proceeding to take a picture of Yatsuhashi holding his weapon. He blinked as the camera’s flash went directly into his eyes. Velvet smiled as she put it away, and then the two of them went on their way.

Coco was dealing with a different problem. The brown-haired superstar had been less then lucky with her partner, as she was starting to hate the fact that she couldn’t understand him at all, he hadn’t said a single word, but kept making all these hand signs. Coco’s best guess was that it was MSL, or Mistralian Sign Language, something she had never learned because it wasn’t taught in any of the academies, nor was it taught in classes outside of certain non-combat schools, as there were not many uses for it as those who you could use it to communicate with were few and far between, any yet here he was, a copper headed, dark skinned, boy who while he understood everything she said, or at least she thought he did, but she couldn’t understand a single thing he said since they had made ‘eye contact’, as the boy also appeared to be blind, his eyes just blank milky whites, not even pupils. It creeped Coco out a bit, and she too was hoping she had gotten a different partner, as she had enjoyed teasing the rabbit Faunas she had caught checking her on the bus yesterday morning. Instead she was trying not to tear her hair out while dealing with this boy.  
The boy she was with was Fox Alistair, who was getting more and more frustrated at the fact that he was basically being ignored. He had tried being nice to her when they first met, now he was just furiously signing insults at her, he had no idea who Coco Adel was, but if it was one of those people on the covers of magazines that he couldn’t read, nor could he currently see her in anyway, he couldn’t even make eye contact. He had tried to ask Professor Ozpin about that before they were sent flying, but was ignored, so far he hadn’t met a single person who had been able to understand MSL, and he was getting pretty pissed off at this point. Unfortunately he couldn’t do anything about it, the only reason he was like this was because he had been mute and blind since birth, unable to speak or see made him an excellent listener, a trait he regretted some days, and this day was turning into one of them. He was stuck with her, but at least she understood that he understood her, so while she complained about how she couldn’t understand him at all, she didn’t even know his name, they headed off towards the direction the Forest Temple should be in, Coco still trying to wrap her head around how this had happened.

 

* * *

 

_Meanwhile_

Weiss was hating her current situation, a pack of Beowolves, really, how did she manage to walk into this. Her new ‘partner’ stood to her back, weapon drawn, trying to restrain himself as the Beowolves actually had yet to attack, they had just surrounded the pair, baying at the pair. Weiss was preparing her strike, going over her training in her head, trying desperately to not lose her calm as this was her first true encounter with Grimm before. As she went to strike, she was interrupted by a loud blast that felt like it had shattered her eardrum. Orion stood there, dead Beowolf at his feet, half of its face blown off by a shotgun blast. Weiss’s strike however had been interrupted, throwing her off balance and causing the blast of fire dust she had launched to miss her target and instead careen into a nearby tree, setting it ablaze in an instant. Another Beowolf went to attack the now disoriented Weiss, but Orion was quick to save her, using his hatchet to deflect the strike. Once Weiss had recovered from her hearing being busted, she looked around to see a flaming tree collapse next to them, grabbing Orion by the arm she dragged them both out of the fight, away from the forest fire she had accidently created.  
Once they were far enough away they paused to catch they’re breathe.   
“What was that,” Orion shouted in annoyance, “That should have been easy!”  
“Well maybe a little warning next time would be nice,” Weiss retorted, “I set half the forest on fire because you decided to unload a shotgun next to my ears.”  
“I’m sorry you have delicate ears, you should have thought about that when you joined a combat school.”  
“Well it was distracting, ever since we met on day one you’ve been nothing but a nuisance, I hope the rest of our team is competent, because you might by the clumsiest child to ever get into Beacon Academy, and I refuse to be brought down by someone like you,” Weiss said, before confidently walking off. Orion in his anger used the hatchet form of his weapon to slash down several small trees before heading off after her.

 

* * *

 

_Meanwhile_

Ren wandered through the forest, looking for someone, trying to find a partner of some sort in the vastness of the woods he was in. As he entered a clearing, he paused, behind him a giant form rose up from out of the grass. It was a King Taijitu, a monstrous snake Grimm whose two heads join in the middle. The monster is the first to strike, using its head to try and beat the Huntsman-in-training to death. Ren avoids the first blow, but is forced to block the second. He is sent flying, before he even lands the Taijitu tries coiling around him, an attempt to smother the boy, Ren pulls out his weapons and leaps out of the coiling creature, firing submachine gun rounds into the creature’s body and giving it a swift kick in the head as it tries to retaliate, stunning it long enough for Ren to get a slash in with the blades on his weapon. The monster tries to strike again, Ren dodges just in time though as the force of the strike causes the ground to shatter, sending debris everywhere. Using the momentum of the jump he used to dodge, Ren gets another strike in, burying the blades of his weapon into the top of the Grimm’s head. The fight is not over though as the second head rears itself, poised to strike. Ren barely dodges the white head’s strike, but now both are awake. Dodging another strike, Ren uses the snake’s own body against it, sliding along the scales, firing shots into the creature’s hide as he goes, before being sent flying by a surprise strike from the white head. The blow knocks away his weapons, the Taijitu sees this as an opportunity and strikes. The attack should’ve killed Ren, the snake should’ve swallowed him whole, instead the Taijitu found itself confused, as currently its two largest fangs were being stopped by the bare hands of a child, Ren’s aura pulsing as he uses the opportunity to rip the fangs from the Taijitu, cracking the bones as he did it, causing the creature to rear back in pain before striking again, this time though Ren was prepared, dodging the strike he buried one of the fangs into the side of the black head, and then using his aura he struck, causing a shockwave to resonate through the fang and the head, a blow so powerful that it caused the head to explode. He pauses before rushing at the other head.  
Several minutes later he stands over the defeated Taijitu, sliding his guns back into the sleeves of his shirt. Above him he hears a strange sound, “Qrrraaww! Qrrraaww!” Nora appears, hanging upside-down from the tree above him.  
Ren smirks, “I still don’t think that’s what a sloth sounds like.”  
Nora in turn boops him on the nose before jumping out of the tree.

 

* * *

 

_On the cliffs above the Emerald Forest_

Glynda keeps her eyes on her scroll as she walks up behind Ozpin, still checking the cameras set up around the forest to make sure her calculations were correct.  
Once certain of the results she speaks, “Our last pair has been formed, sir. Nora Valkyrie and Lie Ren,” she pauses, “Poor boy, I can’t possibly imagine those two getting along. Still, he’s probably better off than Miss Nikos,” Ozpin looks at her inquisitively over that last comment as she continues, “I don’t care what his transcripts say, that Jaune fellow is not ready for this level of combat. I guess we’ll find out soon enough. At their current pace, they should reach the temple within just a few minutes,” She pauses again, turning to Ozpin, “Speaking of which, what did you use as relics this year?”  
Ozpin however was not paying much attention, as he was focused on a particular few pairs, seeing how they would work out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First, I know I didn't do a side thing between the last pair, but they did get paired up, don't worry, I didn't fuck anything up. It's like why no one talks about how team CRDL got paired up in the show, it's unimportant since it was bound to happen.
> 
> To make up for it, I did some serious implications of CrossHares, as well as a little bit of another ship that I will talk about in the future, but not now.
> 
> Still no side characters by the way, won't be happening until we are out of the Emerald Forest.


	6. Chapter 5: Emerald Forest Part 2: Power Within

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jaune learns about Aura, and everyone finds their way to the relics, one way or another.

Pyrrha Nikos continued to make her way through the forest, behind her was her new partner, Jaune Arc, recently liberated from the tree he was pinned to. As they walked they heard an explosion in the distance.  
Jaune was the first to respond, “Did you hear that?”  
 “Gunfire,” Pyrrha stated, “It sounds like some of our comrades have encountered the enemy.”  
They continued walking until a branch that Pyrrha had pushed aside whipped back, smacking Jaune right across the face.  
Pyrrha instantly turns to the sound of her partner hitting the ground, “Jaune! I’m so sorry”  
Jaune looks up after checking his face, “Its ok, just a scratch,” he says before standing up.  
Pyrrha walks up to him, “Why didn’t you activate your aura,” she asks.  
Jaune looks at her confused.  
“Your aura.”  
“Bless you?”  
Pyrrha looks him dead in the eyes, “Jaune, do you know what aura is?”  
Jaune scoffs, trying to play off his lack of knowledge, “Of course I do… do you know what aura is?”  
Pyrrha looks at him, not convinced, deciding to tell him anyways though, even if he did know, “Aura is the manifestation of our soul. It bears our burdens and shields out hearts,” she paused, “Have you ever felt like you were being watched without knowing that someone was there?”  
Jaune just nodded.  
Seeing the nod, Pyrrha continued, “With practice, our aura can be our shield. Everyone has it, even animals.”  
“What about monsters,” Jaune asked.  
“No, the monsters we fight lack a soul,” Pyrrha answered, “They are creatures of Grimm. The manifestation of anonymity. They are the darkness and we are the light.”  
“Right,” Jaune said, having a better of understanding now, “That’s why we fight them.”  
Pyrrha looked at him, “It’s not about why. It’s about knowing, understanding both dark and light helps us manifest our aura. Everyone has some of both.”  
Pyrrha paused again, letting Jaune try and understand what she had said before continuing, “By baring your soul outward as a force, you can deflect harm.”  
“It’s like a forcefield,” Jaune says excitedly.  
Pyrrha tries not to shake her head at that remark, “Yes, if you want to look at it that way.”  
“Now close your eyes and concentrate,” Pyrrha said, getting close to Jaune, her heart beating slightly faster at the closeness.  
She recited the words her parents used when they activated her aura when she was little;

For it is in passing that we achieve immortality  
Through this we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all  
Infinite in distance and unbound by death, I release your soul, and by my should protect thee

She almost collapsed from the effort.  
“Pyrrha,” Jaune said, concern in his voice.  
“It’s alright, I used my aura to unlock yours, but the energy that protects you now is your own.” She responded, a little out of breathe from the strain she had put on herself, making a mental note to not try that again.  
She looked upon him, feeling a little bit of pride for what she just did, “You have a lot of it.”

* * *

 

_Meanwhile_

Weiss Schnee was pacing back and forth, trying to decide which direction their objective was, “It’s definitely this way,” turning on her heels she immediately changed her mind, “I mean…It’s definitely this way,” her teammate sitting on a stump, waiting for the heiress to stop trying to act like she had an idea where they were. Instead she stopped pacing, looking at her teammate, “Alright, it’s official, we passed it.”  
Orion looked up from the stick he had been absentmindedly breaking down, sighing he said, “Why can’t you just admit that we’re lost?”  
“We’re not lost, besides I know exactly where we’re going, we’re going to… the Forest Temple,” Weiss retorted.  
Orion rolled his eyes.  
“Oh stop it,” Weiss snapped, “You don’t know where we are either!”  
“True,” Orion replied, “But at least I’m willing to admit it, instead of acting like I know everything.”  
Weiss crossed her arms, “And what exactly is that supposed to mean?”  
“It means that this entire time you’ve been nothing but a spoiled, know-it-all brat and I can’t stand it.”  
Weiss rolled her eyes in response, “Just keep moving.”  
“Just keep moving. Hurry up. Wah! Watch where you’re going,” Orion said, horribly mocking Weiss voice as he did.  
Changing back to his normal voice he asked the one question that had been bothering him, “Why are you being such a bitch?!”  
Weiss turned on him, furious, “I’m not being like that. What is wrong with you?!”  
Orion rose to his full height, now towering over the heiress, “What’s wrong with me?! What’s wrong with you, since day one you’ve done nothing but act like you’re perfect!”  
“I’m not perfect,” Weiss shouted, stopping Orion mid tangent, “Not yet, but I’m still leagues better than you.”  
As she walked away Orion just said to himself, “How would you even know?”

 

* * *

 

Leonard and Elizabeth emerged from the forest, looking at the small structure ahead of them.  
“Think this is it,” Leonard asked, looking at Elizabeth.  
She just shrugged, they had been wandering for a few hours now, but since this was the first structure they had come across at all, they thought they should at least check it out. Since it didn’t look like any Grimm were around, the worst this could be was a just a random building in the middle nowhere. As they got closer they realized that it was the place, as there were 12 pedestals in a half-circle, most of them had some sort of object on them.  
As they got closer, they realized what the objects were, “Chess pieces,” Elizabeth said, questioningly.  
Leonard looked at them, seeing bishops, knights, and rooks, “Some of them are missing,” he pointed out.  
Elizabeth looked around, realizing that some of the pedestals were empty, she wasn’t surprised that they weren’t the first one’s here, but she wanted to see who got here before them, so they could wait and pick pieces that matched with people they would want to team up with. Instead they were left with a slightly fewer options, until she realized that both the black bishop pieces were chosen, meaning that they still had slight control of their options.  
“Maybe we should just pick one now,” Leonard said, breaking Elizabeth from her train of thought, “So, do you want a pony or a castle?”  
“Why not a priest?”  
“Because I promised your dad we’d make it through Beacon before I considered marrying you.”  
Elizabeth smiled, while not certain if such a promise existed, she couldn’t help smiling at her dorky boyfriend, “I’m thinking the pony, because if we’re not allowed to marry until after Beacon, buying the house can wait too.”  
Leonard smiled back, “Fair enough,” he said grabbing a black knight piece from the pedestal in front of him, “That wasn’t too hard.”  
“Well, it’s not like this place is very difficult to find.”

Leonard and Elizabeth decided to stick around, just to see who might show up anytime soon, while also choosing not to interfere with anyone’s choices, since unless Cardin Winchester or Weiss Schnee were to come strolling out of the woods, they were fine with whoever decided to join their team. They were not disappointed as shortly after they decided to sit down on a mostly broken down wall, they heard the flap of wings. Elizabeth was instantly on her weapon, expecting to see a Nevermore or Griffon circling overhead, instead she heard a shout as she saw a girl with dragon wings land at the edge of the forest.

 

 

“I told you it wasn’t too far,” Zinnea shouted, her voice aimed at someone in the forest.  
“I said I believed you,” a second voice responded, “I told you to slow down because unlike you, I can’t fly.” Blake soon stepped out of the forest, panting since she had been almost sprinting to keep up with her new partner.  
“Not my fault you didn’t accept my offer to carry you.”  
“I know, I just didn’t expect you to go that fast…can we just get down to the temple so we can get our relic and maybe a chance to sit down for a bit?”  
As the two Faunas walked they noticed the pair sitting by the temple, the girl was waving, her massive gun leaned up against her. Next to her was a boy in t-shirt and pants, as they got closer they could see the black gloves that went halfway up his forearm, something they couldn’t fully understand. The assumption was that it was his weapon, but neither of them could understand why your weapon would be gloves, sure Zinnea had her gauntlets, but even those looked like weapons when they were fully activated, these just looks like gloves and nothing else.

As Blake and Zinnea finally made their way to the Temple, Leonard and Elizabeth were waiting for them, greeting went around for all, the two faunas looked at the pedestals, Blake having the same reaction that Elizabeth had as she looked questionably at the various chess pieces.  
Zinnea turned to Leonard and Elizabeth, “So which one did you guys pick?”  
A sly grin spread across Leonard’s face, “Well, there are only three missing, so it’s possible that we can’t team up, but the one left that has it’s other half gone could be the one we chose, but it could also belong to someone random.”  
Elizabeth lightly smacked Leonard in the back of the head, “Don’t mind him, he just likes messing with people at the worst times, it’s the black knight. Honestly Leonard, why would you be like that now, we both know they were going to be on our team because of my poem, why did you have to mess with them anyways?”  
“Am I not allowed to have a little fun with our new teammates?”  
“Not that kind of fun,” Elizabeth huffed.  
Leonard sighed, “Fine,” he turned to his two partners, “So, should we head out?”  
Before anyone else could respond, all Dust decided to break loose.

 

* * *

 

Jaune and Pyrrha stood in front of a cave, the dark hole in the cliff seemed slightly ominous, but not enough to actually warrant staying away.  
“Think this is it?”  
Pyrrha shrugged, not sure what to think of this place. Jaune lit a torch and the two of them wandered into the cave, ignoring the carvings next to the cave that if you studied them, you’d realize that this was not what they thought it was.  
After several minutes Pyrrha decided to speak up, “I’m not sure this is it…”  
Jaune sighed, “Pyrrha, I made the torch, could you at least humor me for maybe five more feet?” As he finished his request, he immediately tripped, dropping the torch into the shallow water on the cave floor.  
As he stood up in the darkness, all he could see were Pyrrha’s green eyes, which were currently looking around, trying to find something that he couldn’t see.  
“Do you feel that,” Pyrrha asked.  
“Soul crushing regret,” Jaune depressingly responded.  
Pyrrha gave him a questioning look, “No, it’s…warm.”  
As they wandered even deeper into the black abyss, a faint glow came from the back of the cave, getting brighter as they got closer, the object creating the glow looked like a giant gem of amber, which looked suspiciously smooth despite being this deep underground.  
Jaune’s face lit up as he saw it, “That’s the relic!”  
As he reached out for it, the ‘relic’ moved away, and then closer, before doing the process twice over, the last time Jaune jumped towards it, grabbing the object as it proceeded to lift him off the ground.  
“Jaune…”Pyrrha said, the feeling of concern definitely in her voice.  
Jaune looked forward to realize he was face-to-face with a very large Grimm.

 

* * *

 

A girly scream was heard across the forest as Blake was grabbing her pair’s chess piece.  
They all looked at each other, Leonard being the first to speak, “Well…that girl is definitely in trouble.”

 

* * *

 

Pyrrha ran from the small opening, weapons already drawn as behind her a giant scorpion-like Grimm burst from the cave, Jaune still hanging onto the tail like his life depended on it screaming.  
“This is not the relic. It’s not. Do something,” he shouted, the fear in his voice.  
“Jaune whatever you do, don’t let-,“ and on that note the Grimm sent Jaune flying across the forest, “-go,” Pyrrha finished, now realizing she was alone to fight the great beast, she took off sprinting, the monster close behind.

 

* * *

 

Blake and company were still trying to figure out the origin of the scream, Zinnea looked up, as Leonard suggested they find out the origins of the scream, another one was heard above the group.  
“Heads up,” the voice screamed, looking up they saw a tall boy falling from the heavens, before he could hit the ground another boy came flying out of the forest, smacking into the first boy and sending both of them into the nearby trees.  
Leonard was the first to speak, “So everyone else saw that right?”  
They just nodded, not sure of what had happened, but they saw it all the same. They didn’t have much time to figure it out as out of the forest came an Ursa, which collapsed almost instantly, the orange-haired girl from this morning appeared to have been riding it. She now stood over the corpse, making a comment about how it was now broken as her partner came up behind her.  
“Nora,” Ren panted, absolutely out of breath with trying to keep up with her, “Don’t ever do that again.” Before he could say anything else though she was at the temple, looking over the relics, picking up a rook she started singing, “I’m queen of the castle! I’m queen of the castle,” only to be interrupted by her partner shouting her name.  
“Coming Ren,” she said giddily, almost like she enjoyed making him annoyed.  
Blake then spoke up, “Did she just ride in on an Ursa?”  
Before anyone else could respond a group came streaming out of the woods, chased by even more Ursa and Beowolves, among those being chased were Coco Adel, the bunny girl Leonard recognized from the ship, and a surprising sight that Leonard hadn’t noticed, Samantha White, the heiress for the White Conglomrate, was among the people being chased.  
Before anyone else could even make comments about that, there was a loud roar from the forest, and out came a single girl being chased by a giant scorpion. Leonard actually recognized this girl to, it was Pyrrha Nikos, and he was slowly feeling smaller, just with how many people he had recognized due to their fame in the first two days.  
Blake then pointed out something, “Did she just get chased all the way here by a Deathstalker?”  
Zinnea screamed, “I can’t take it anymore, can we just slow down for two seconds before something crazy happens!”

* * *

 

While all this was going on, Orion was still recovering in the tree he landed in, little stars and Nevermores circled his head.  
“What happened,” he asked, still dazed by the experience.  
“A little help,” a voice asked, looking up Orion saw a blonde boy hanging upside-down from an above branch.  
“You got yourself up there, you can get yourself down,” Orion said before jumping down landing in the chaos below. As he walked by he noticed someone standing by the temple, someone who he thought he wouldn’t see after Signal.  
“Leonard Thorn? I thought you and Elizabeth were going to Haven,” he was legitimately surprised, the silent child he had met at Signal was standing there.  
Leonard instantly reacted to his name, “Orion Vagasada? When the hell did you get here,” he asked, a huge grin on his face. Orion had been one of the few kids at Signal that Leonard was actually cool with, seeing him here was a bit of a relief.  
Leonard noticed Orion was the only person in the entire area without a partner. Noticing the look on his face Orion just shrugged.  
“She should be here.”  
“She?”  
“Yea…I got paired with the Schnee.”  
Leonard’s jaw dropped, Orion was one of the few people he knew who disliked the Schnee family more than he did. He truly pitied the poor behemoth of a boy, he actually had grown at least another half foot since they last saw each other at graduation. Their conversation interrupted when Blake pointed out the giant Nevermore in the sky.  
“Your mode of transportation,” Elizabeth asked.  
Before he could respond, they all heard a shout from the sky, “How could you leave me?”  
Orion shrugged.  
“She’s going to fall,” Zinnea pointed out.  
“She’ll be fine,” Orion responded.  
“She’s falling,” Blake said.

* * *

 

While this was happening, Jaune had finally gotten himself out of the tree. Now standing on a branch, he saw the beautiful heiress he had briefly met earlier, if he could catch her, she would most likely fall head over heels for her hero. He leaped from his perch to catch her, and once she had been caught, he realized how far up they were, both of them screaming on the way down.  
Jaune was the first to land, landing spread-eagle on the ground, only to have Weiss land on his back seconds later.  
“My hero,” Weiss said sarcastically.  
“My back,” Jaune wheezed from underneath.

  
As all the various students were pushed back towards the temple, Pyrrha recently sent sprawling to the ground by the Deathstalker, Elizabeth heard a familiar hiss, instantly she put herself on an even higher guard, no longer just worrying about herself, but the others, as that hiss meant one thing, Leonard had disengaged his gloves, the palms had fallen back, exposing his bare skin, and with it a touch that could kill. Orion had noticed it too, while not as quick to react, he quickly put some distance between himself and Leonard.  
“Alright the gang’s all here,” Leonard said, a cocky grin on his face, “Let’s get this show on the road.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, that was a super long chapter, but I disliked the cut off point they did in the series, so I moved it back a little, next chapter will be fully dedicated to the fight scenes. Also, never understood why they went with the chess pieces...maybe it'll be explained someday.
> 
> As for the minor characters:  
> Cardin Winchester(just a mention)


	7. Chapter 6: Players, Pieces, and Pain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The four new teams fight for survival, and their place at Beacon, leaving a slaughter in their wake.

Surrounded on all sides, the soon to be teams, BLZE, SNOW, CFVY, and JNPR stood side-by-side, Grimm kept charging out of the woods, only to be cut down by various firearms, pistols, rifles, and even a chaingun were firing, spewing shots into the oncoming hordes, those who survived the hail of bullets were destroyed in an instant, cut down by swords, slammed by fists and hammers, a few howled in in agony, their end coming at the hands of Leonard Thorn, his semblance melting their bodies on contact, causing them to reel back in pain, only to be shot down by someone else.

In the heat of battle, no one had noticed that someone had engaged the Deathstalker, until there was a shout, a weapon seen flying from the hands of its wielder.  All too late, Leonard had noticed that Orion had decided to fight the Deathstalker alone, all had forgotten about the Nevermore circling overhead, which had pinned him to the ground. The Deathstalker raised its stinger, prepared to kill the huntsman-in-training, ending his career before it could even begin, Orion braced himself for the worst as a blur of white streaked by.  
Nothing, no pain, no death, just silence, then almost as if on cue, a voice he had heard a little too often today started berating him again, “You are so reckless,” as he opened his eyes he saw the stinger inches from his face, beyond that was pure ice, sprung from the ground by a glyph belonging to the platinum blonde angel in front of him, “and dim-witted, and hyperactive, and don’t even get me started on your lack of communication. And I suppose, I can be a bit,” she paused, trying to think of the most appropriate word here, “difficult, but if we’re going to do this, we’re going to have to do this together. So if you can stop being so reckless, I’ll be…nicer.”  
Orion smirked, “I’ll try.”

As he stood up, he got a quick glance to what was behind the wall of ice, “Damn,” he whispered at the sight of the Deathstalker, struggling against the icy prison its tail was currently trapped in.  
As the last of the Grimm were laid to rest, Jaune pointed up at the sky, “Guys, that thing is circling back,” he said, the Nevermore still doing laps in the sky, “What are we going to do?”  
“Look, there’s no sense in dilly-dallying, our objective is right in front of us,” Weiss said, gesturing to the pedestals behind them.  
“She’s right,” Blake pointed out, “Our mission is to grab an artifact and make it back to the cliffs. There’s no point in fighting these things.”  
“Run and live,” Jaune happily replied, “That’s an idea I can get behind.”

After everyone had grabbed a different relic, the four teams started to leave. Within seconds of them leaving, the ice holding the Deathstalker down shattered, and more Grimm gave chase.

* * *

 

The four teams continued to make their way towards the cliffs, just as they left the forest, the giant Nevermore from before landed on the ruined tower ahead.  
“Well, that’s just great,” Zinnea sarcastically said, as the monstrous bird screech at the huntsmen and huntresses hiding among the ruins.  
As if on cue, the Deathstalker from before burst through the woods, following it were more Beowolves and Ursa, as well as a King Taijitu.  
“Aw crap, run,” Jaune shouted, the four teams tried for the small bridge that led to the tower. The Nevermore started throwing its feathers at the teens, trying to pierce them with projectiles nearly twice their size.  
“Nora, distract it,” Ren shouted, his partner pulled the grenade launcher from her back, launching shots that exploded in an odd pink smoke, throwing the bird from its perch. The Deathstalker rushed her from behind, before it could strike, jade and brown intercepted its claws as Weiss grabbed the pink-clad huntress and got them both out of harm’s way. The members of SNOW and JNPR rushed for the bridge.  
“Go, go, go,” Pyrrha called, switching from spear to rifle, and firing several shots into the scorpion as Natalia and Ren finally made it to the bridge, which was wide enough to allow them all on, but narrow enough to keep the widespread arachnid from crossing it. As most of them sprinted in an attempt to cross the bridge, the Nevermore swooped in, knocking the bridge out from underneath the teens, leaving Pyrrha, Ren, and Natalia stranded against an ever emboldening Deathstalker. Trapped on the other side of the bridge, Jaune looked at his partner and the two others, barely holding their own.  
“Man, we gotta get over there,” he says, “They need help.”  
“Let’s do this,” Nora says.  
“Yeah,” Jaune responds nervously, “But I don’t think I can make that jump.”  
Nora grins as she knocks Jaune back, her weapon transforming into a giant, two-handed hammer, running towards the edge of the side they stood, she jumped off, only to spin around and send a panicking Jaune flying towards the beast on the other side before launching herself over, slamming her hammer into the head of the Grimm before dodging the stinger and inadvertently knocking Natalia off the edge.

As Natalia fell, she ran through a selection of curses she was going to use on the girl who did this, if she survived, seeing the Nevermore still circling around the tower, she knew that monster was her best chance of getting back to her partner, firing the grappling line from her right hand into a nearby structure and swung herself towards the beast before firing the line in the left gauntlet, wrapping around the monster’s beak. She reeled herself in before using the mini-repeaters in her gauntlets to unload into it, firing shots that were probably more irritating than damaging, unsatisfied with the results, she leaped off, landing right next to her partner, on her left stood the boy from their first morning at the Academy, as well as the Schnee girl.  
“It’s a lot tougher than it looks,” she said, turning to her partner, her semblance in use as she rolled the eight-sided die she carried, seeing the seven rolled, she smirked, Crescent Moon forming in Samantha’s hands.  
The boy was the one to speak though, “Then let’s hit it with everything we got!”

 

* * *

 

As SNOW and JNPR handled the Deathstalker and Nevermore, teams BLZE and CFVY were having some other difficulties though, the hoard of Grimm had made the retreat impossible for the entire group, there were too many. That problem was sort of rectified though when Coco Adel revved up her weapon, the chaingun spewed shots into the new hoard, cutting down lesser Grimm with ease, before the King Taijitu started to absorb the shots.  
Coco gritted her teeth, shouting at the rest of her soon-to-be team, “Take it down!”

BLZE on the other hand were left with clean-up duty, something that Leonard was completely fine with, the hiss of his gloves disengaging sounded out across the field as he smirked, “Alright then, it’s play time.”

* * *

 

_BLZE v Grimm Hoard_

The hoard came for the four as a constant rush, claws swiped and teeth gnashed at them, only to either hit thin air or be blocked like the monsters had hit a brick wall. Blake and Zinnea decided to take on several Ursa, Blake dodging blows from one with acrobatic grace, before cleaving the offender in half with ease. Zinnea forced herself to stay focused instead of staring at the display her partner put on, instead finally deciding to cut a little loose.  
“You guys might want to get out of the way,” she yelled before unleashing her semblance. She roared, a torrent of flame came forth, incinerating everything in its path, Grimm roared and screeched as they were roasted alive.

Leonard on the other hand was cutting loose in a different way, his years of close combat training were on full display as he effortlessly beat down three Beowolves at once, each one falling after palm strikes from his right hand brought them to his knees, their bodies shutting down with the poison that was his semblance running through them. Everything he couldn’t deal with quickly was picked off by his partner. Elizabeth was on top form as always as she sniped Grimm left and right, her usually large rifle had collapsed down into a bolt-action, allowing her to go as fast as necessary, saving the life of her slightly reckless boyfriend on more than one occasion. The hoard thinning to the team’s combined assault, Leonard grabbed two Beowolves by their throats and squeezed. The left one howled in agony, as the acid slowly melted its throat, all the way to its spine, before it fell from Leonard’s grasp; the right one though first roared, that changed to a whimper as the poison slowly took like from its limbs, soon its lifeless body fell to the ground, Elizabeth shooting it in the head for good measure.

Unbeknownst to Leonard, Zinnea watched the whole scene go down. The look on her face was horror, she was not sure what she had seen but she was afraid to find out, for what she seen shook her to her core, every nerve in her body told her to run from that man, but she stood her ground, not wanting to show weakness, only to be snapped from her trance as the final Ursa collapsed before her.

 

* * *

 

_CFVY v King Taijitu_

After shouting that order, Coco realized that this was going to be one of those, ‘easier said than done moment.’ Her partner, ‘Mr. Blind’ as she had started to call him went straight at it, pummeling the white head as it had hidden itself from the barrage that had exited Coco’s weapon. The black head attempted to kill the source of its annoyance, lunging at Coco, it would have succeeded if not for the titan of a man who used his giant sword as a shield, causing the strike to bounce harmlessly away from the two.

Fox was still battling the white head, dodging its strikes and countering with a few of his own, sending the white head flying towards a very panicked rabbit faunas.  
“Oh crap,” Velvet shouted, diving out of the way of the incoming head, “Why, why does this thing have a sleep mode?!” She was struggling with her weapon, which even though she was sure she had checked it before launching off the cliff, was currently not working.  
“Oh come on, just start up,” she shouted before slamming the power button on the side of the little box that contained her weapon. With a small whir, she cheered, as the weapon started constructing its first weapon, a simple katana, constructed of pure light. Velvet’s expression changed as she rushed the beast attacking her soon-to-be team, grim and emotionless, as the dark skinned boy dodged the latest strike from the white head, Velvet struck, a quick slash straight through the next of the Taijitu. At first glance it looked as if no damage was done, the white head turning to try and eat the latest annoyance, before it paused, as its head slowly slid off its body, falling to the ground in front of the dark fighter. He makes a motion that Velvet recognizes as MSL, not knowing enough to determine what he said, she just gives a thumbs-up and small smile.

As the white head fell, the black head roared in pain, still being pounded by the barrage of fire from Coco’s weapon. It launched itself at her again, only to be knocked away by her blind partner. Then came the rabbit faunas, the girl she had teased the day before, a stoic expression on her face as the katana she had before was gone, replaced by a pair of clawed gauntlets that belonged to a certain dragon faunas. The rabbit pummeled the black beast that threatened her team, each blow lacerating the scales of the monster before she unleashed all the fury stored inside of her in a single motion, her semblance kicking into full gear as she let loose a breath of fire straight into the face of the Taijitu. The demon reeled back, screeching in pain as its face was battered and burned by the assault. Velvet had one last trick up her sleeve as the gauntlets transformed into a pair of gloves, whose palms were already peeling back, allowing her to grip the beast and cause it scream, the acid from the semblance she copied going into full effect, melting away the monster before she transformed the gloves into a giant mace and crushed what was left of its head.

Her three teammates just stared her down, even the one she was sure was blind looked in her direction, stunned looks on their faces, as they were trying to comprehend what had just happened.  
Fox was the first to respond, “So that just happened, can we get an explanation,” he signs, an inquisitive look on her face.  
“The dark one raises a good point,” spoke the behemoth of a man, “What exactly was that Velvet?”  
Velvet steeled herself before speaking, she always got nervous when explaining her abilities, heck, she was nervous all the time, especially when a certain brunette teased her.  
“My weapon can create hard-light constructs of any weapon, or at least any weapon I take a photo of....My semblance also allows me to copy any semblance, to a degree,” she explained, trying to not nervously ramble like she sometimes would.  
“Holy shit,” Coco exclaimed, “That was amazing, but one question, how long do you keep the semblance…because I don’t know exactly what that melting one was, but I want none of that.”  
Velvet giggled a little, “It only lasts as long as I have the corresponding weapon is equipped, so I’m safe now if that’s what you’re wondering.”

While the two girls chatted each other up, Fox started signing towards the behemoth who apparently understood him.  
“First, oh thank Dust, I thought I was going to go through this entire school with no one that understood me. Second, how on Remnant do you know MSL and not the rich chick? Third, can you please tell them my name, because I swear if either of them call me ‘Mr. Blind’ one more time, I’m killing them both, no mercy. Also…can I get names for you and your partner, I’m bad with voices if there’s no name attached.”  
Yatsuhashi just looked confused for a second before finally responding to that plethora of requests, “Alright, first, my name is Yatsuhashi Daichi, but you can call me Yatsu, my partner is Velvet Scarlatina, and as a precaution, I should mention she is a faunas, so if you wish to voice anything, don’t. Second, the only reason I know MSL is because of my family, my little sister was born deaf, my entire family learned it to communicate with her. Third, I will need to know your name in order to tell them. Finally, I am glad to have found you as well, though it is surprise you speak in MSL when you can hear perfectly fine.”  
Fox sighed before signing his response, “My name is Fox Alistair, I’ve been blind and mute since birth, parents taught me MSL and braille.”

* * *

 

_JNPR v Deathstalker_

The Deathstalker’s latest strike had broken the bridge, or at least what was left of it, leaving the four teens in a do or die situation.  
“We need to move,” shouted Jaune. On queue the four rushed the scorpion, as it raised a pincer to strike, Pyrrha blocked the hit, slicing away at the appendage as she did. Before it could bring its other claw down on her, Jaune ran in, blocking the blow, allowing Pyrrha time to strike the second pincer, leaving the beast reeling in pain. This opening allowed Ren to rush the beast, emptying his weapon into the beast, dodging a strike from the large stinger, he launched himself onto said stinger, pumping even more rounds into the base of the stinger.

Meanwhile his teammates continued to battle the beast’s pincers. Nora fired several grenades at it, only to have to explosions blocked by its massive claws. As it opened itself back up, Pyrrha launched her spear towards the beast, stabbing out one of its eight eyes and causing it to reel again, sending Ren flying from its tail and into a nearby pillar, his partner crying out for him as he was thrown. Getting back to his feet, Jaune noticed that the tail was now knocked loose, the damage Ren had dealt was significant enough to allow them to actually kill this beast.  
“Pyrrha,” he said, pointing to the dangling stinger.  
“Done,” she responded, throwing her shield at the stinger, slicing through the base, causing the massive spike to fall straight into the head of the Deathstalker before returning back to her.  
“Nora, nail it,” he said, turning to the pink-clad huntress.  
“Heads up,” she responds, before leaping up, using Pyrrha as a voluntary springboard, she sent herself flying into the air, giggling a little as she reached the top, before sailing back down, slamming her hammer into the stinger, killing the beast in that instant. In the process she thoroughly destroyed what was left of the bridge, sending both Pyrrha and Jaune hurtling over the monster, Pyrrha using the opportunity to grab the spear still lodged in the monster’s eye. As they landed it was for the most part, less than graceful, Jaune on his back, Nora on her butt, and Pyrrha was the only one to actually land on her feet, while Ren stumbled over from where he had been thrown earlier and collapsed from exhaustion.

* * *

 

_SNOW v Nevermore_

“Then let’s hit it with everything we got,” as if on Orion’s command, the whole team started firing, Samantha’s scythe revealing it was also a sniper rifle, slammed round after round at the bird, Natalia started unloading her repeaters towards the beast, a spatter of shots to soften it, Orion changed his rounds from spreads to slugs and sent nearly a dozen rounds hurling at the beast, and Schnee let her glyphs take shape, icy projectiles and blasts of pure energy sailed at the bird.

The Nevermore seemed to shrug off the blows and crashed into the tower, sending it tumbling down. The four scrambled to escape the debris, Samantha and Orion using the recoil from their weapons to launch themselves upward, while Weiss’ glyphs and Natalia’s grapple lines brought both to safety.

As they reached the various platforms above the falling debris, Weiss glanced around, Orion was still firing at the bird from a nearby pillar. Samantha had landed next to her, scythe at the ready.  
“None of this is working,” she says.  
“I got a plan,” Samantha says, looking around to see what exactly she could use before running off, “cover me!”

Orion was still firing on the Nevermore, determined to do some damage to it. Finally he got a shot to land square in an eye, unfortunately it irritated the beast more than it damaged it. It charged him, seeing no place to go he leaped up, landing in its open beak, keeping it propped open with his free hand while pumping shotgun slugs into its open gullet.  
“I hope you’re hungry,” he angrily shouts, before jumping out of the beak, just in time to escape the crash into the cliff side. Looking up he smirked, seeing his new team in positions to try and finally end this beast. Running back towards his team, he let Weiss tag in, leaping at the monster she struck the rocks where its tail feathers were, freezing the entire thing, causing the being to be trapped by the ice structure created by the young Schnee.

Meanwhile Natalia and Orion set up Natalia’s grappling lines to use as a slingshot to launch Samantha at the Nevermore. As Weiss got into position, setting up a special propulsion glyph, Samantha jumped onto Crescent Moon and then onto the grapple line, sliding back into glyph.  
“I can’t believe you talked me into this,” Weiss said.  
“It’ll work,” Samantha reassured her, “Think you can make the shot?”  
Weiss smirked, “Can I?”  
Samantha turned towards her, slightly confused, “Can you?”  
“Of course I can,” Weiss angrily states, just before Samantha launched herself at the monster.  
Firing shot after shot to keep herself moving, before she finally pinned the Nevermore by the neck with her scythe, its back pressed against the cliff. Before Samantha could lose her footing, Weiss created glyphs along the cliff, allowing Samantha to run straight up it, using the blasts from Crescent Moon to keep her moving, she dragged the Nevermore up the cliff, blade of her weapon digging into its neck as she dragged it with her. At the top of the cliff she gave it one last pull, separating the beast’s head from its body.

Down below everyone looked on in awe, the Nevermore’s body tumbling back down to the ruins below.  
“Wow,” said a genuinely surprised Jaune, his entire team stunned in silence.  
As for Samantha’s three teammates, they just looked up at her, Natalia getting another reminder on why she was in love with her partner, Weiss just stunned that it had worked, leaving Orion the one to break the silence, “Well. That was a thing.”  
Down in the valley, Leonard just decided he was just going to collapse instead.  
“If anyone needs me,” he shouted, falling to the ground as he did, “I’m just gonna take a nap until we find out how to get out of here, I am officially done with today.”  
While Leonard laid on the ground, he closed up his gloves, the same hissing noise as before sounded. Attracted to the noise, a young man with rust colored hair and dark skin walked over, almost staring him down with eyes of pure white.  
“What’s up,” Leonard asked, curiosity getting the better of him.  
“Interesting,” the boy signed, “So that’s where she got them from.”  
Leonard was now thoroughly confused, “Wait, who got what?!”  
The boy then walked away, back towards his teammates, just leaving Leonard wondering what had happened, and had he accidently given his burden to someone else?

 

* * *

 

_Several Hours Later_

 

“Russel Thrush, Cardin Winchester, Dove Bronzewing, Sky Lark,” Ozpin announced to a packed auditorium, people clapping in respect for the new team, “The four of you retrieved the black bishop pieces. From this day forward you will work together as Team CRDL, led by Cardin Winchester.”  
Leonard rolled his eyes at that, just waiting to see how that turned out. Team assignments were going pretty normally, Teams CRDL and CYPR had already been officially formed, although Leonard had no idea how CYPR had retrieved the white bishop pieces in all the chaos that had happened. He instead turned his attention back to the stage as the next team went on stage.  
“Jaune Arc, Lie Ren, Pyrrha Nikos, Nora Valkyrie,” Ozpin announced, “The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces. From this day forward you will work together as Team JNPR, led by Jaune Arc.”  
Leonard almost wanted to bust out laughing, especially when Pyrrha’s congratulatory punch sent Jaune sprawling to the ground, that poor boy, he was the last kind of person Leonard expected here, but he survived the initiation and was here in the first place, so Leonard decided to cut him some slack.  
As they left the stage, Ozpin started rattling off the next team, “Yatsuhashi Daichi, Velvet Scarlatina, Coco Adel, Fox Alistair. The four of you retrieved the black rook pieces. From this day forward you will work together as Team CFVY, led by Coco Adel.”  
Leonard just grinned a little as Elizabeth cheered on her idol, she was a dork sometimes, but she was his dork, his very lovable dork.  
“Natalia Tisoki,” Leonard was interrupted by Ozpin’s announcement for the next team, “Samantha White, Orion Vagasada, Weiss Schnee. The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forward you will work together as Team SNOW, led by Samantha White.”  
Leonard watched as Natalia picked Samantha up in a bit of a bear hug in celebration, silently he wondered if this meant he and Elizabeth weren’t the only couple going into Beacon.  
Finally it was his team’s turn, he had been wondering where exactly the day was going to lead, but ending with the four of them felt fitting.  
“Blake Belladona, Zinnea Draconov, Leonard Thorn, Elizabeth Pavlichenko. The four of you retrieved the black knight pieces. From this day forward you will work together as Team BLZE, led by Blake Belladona.”  
Leonard and his two teammates look down at their black-haired teammate, whose look was currently one of shock, like she expected anyone else to get it. Zinnea just had a big grin plastered on her face, trying to keep herself from picking up the stunned girl in a bear hug of her own.  
“Looks like things are shaping up to be an interesting year.”

 

* * *

 

_Later That Evening_

The various teams started settling into their dorms, including Team BLZE.  
“Alright, so after I shower, I’m going straight to bed, if anyone has any objections on me getting first shower, speak right up,” Leonard stated as they entered the room, he was absolutely beat from today, too many Grimm, he was just drained from all of that.  
“I don’t object to you getting first shower,” Zinnea says, “But I want to know something, I saw you do something today, I’m not sure what it was, but I every nerve in my body was screaming at me to run, I need to know, what in Dust did you do to those Grimm.”  
Leonard froze, knowing exactly where this conversation would lead, he wasn’t ready to talk about it, not yet.  
“You want to know if I’m going to be dangerous to you two,” Leonard states, knowing he isn’t wrong, “Well there’s a reason I wear my gloves, and you saw the exact reason why. Whether you choose to admit it or not, you know exactly what you saw, you just can’t comprehend it because you’re afraid, I don’t blame you, and I’m still scared of what I can do.”  
Zinnea’s look turned from curiosity to worry, “Then tell us, let us-“  
“No,” Leonard screamed, whipping around to face the dragon faunas, “Just no.”  
As he stalked off into the shower, Elizabeth turned to the stunned faces of Zinnea and Blake, “He means well, he’s just nervous, we just got to know each other, but he still needs time. You’ll understand.”

 

* * *

 

_Meanwhile_

Down at the docks, Roman Torchwick was still planning out his latest set of schemes, the prospect of robbing Vale of all their Dust was getting harder by the day as there were less and less places to hit, his latest attempt had been caught, leaving him with nothing. He lights his cigar, trying to calm his nerves when he hears a cart rolling up behind him. Turning his head slightly, he sees a man dressed in robes and wearing a mask, meant to look like a Grimm.  
Taking a small handful of Lien, he passed it to the stranger with a simple command, “Open it.”  
The stranger obliged, using a crowbar to crack open the box on the cart, which contained dozens of Dust crystals.  
Smiling, he turns to his board, the map of the city he was about to own in front of him, “We’re going to need more men.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok...so those Grimm fight scenes got pretty intense, especially considering the fact that I had to write two from scratch.  
> Also, yay, the teams are officially made, so just as a quick recap here are all 6 teams mentioned during the chapter's ending.
> 
> Team CYPR(Cipher)(My shameless RvB reference)  
> \- Carolina Churchill  
> \- York Newshire  
> \- Preston Dakota  
> \- Rachel Dakota
> 
> Team CRDL(Cardinal)  
> \- Cardin Winchester  
> \- Russel Thrush  
> \- Dove Bronzewing  
> \- Sky Lark
> 
> Team JNPR(Juniper)  
> \- Jaune Arc  
> \- Nora Valkyrie  
> \- Pyrrha Nikos  
> \- Lie Ren
> 
> Team CFVY(Coffee)  
> \- Coco Adel  
> \- Fox Alistair  
> \- Velvet Scarlatina  
> \- Yatsuhashi Daichi
> 
> Team SNOW(Snow)  
> \- Samantha White  
> \- Natalia Tisoki  
> \- Orion Vagasada  
> \- Weiss Schnee
> 
> Team BLZE(Blaze)  
> \- Blake Belladonna  
> \- Leonard Thorn  
> \- Zinnea Draconov  
> \- Elizabeth Pavlichenko
> 
> Also, Roman's being evil again...yea, we'll get to that, as well as other things in the story, some you know are coming, some, not so much.
> 
> Also, starting in about a week, there will be an ask blog on Tumblr for all the characters(specifically the OC's), but I will not be answering any asks until the first Volume is done. I'll start linking it as soon as I get it up and running.


	8. Chapter 7: Training Badge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first day of classes kicks off with several events, including talk of something that should have been discussed the night before.  
> While BLZE deals with in-team relationship, Weiss fights a powerful force and her own anger at a personal frustration.

The morning would have been peaceful, the sun was already decently high in the sky, a few birds could be heard singing, and it was the first official at Beacon, it couldn’t be better, except for the alarm clock that decided to go off at this time. Leonard groggily rose from his bed, to the wide grin of one dragon faunas.   
“Good morning sleepyhead,” Zinnea cheerily said, looking over her shoulder, Leonard saw his new team leader, Blake sitting on her bed behind Zinnea, her nose in a book of some sort. He also saw the alarm clock next to Zinnea’s bed, it read 7:30 AM; he was already regretting this team-up, or at least this part.   
“Oh Dust babe, we got put on a team with morning people,” Leonard mumbled, a little louder than he meant to, judging by the confused look on Zinnea’s face.   
“What are you talking about,” she asked, “You are the last one up, Elizabeth even made her bed before disappearing, considering how she was up before any us.”  
It was now Leonard’s turn to be confused, looking to the lump next to him on his bed. Sighing, he nudged the lump, “We should’ve probably told them yesterday, but better now than having to explain later.”   
The lump next to him moved a little, “Five more minutes Leonard,” Elizabeth grumbled, she really hated being up before eight on any day of the week, which is probably how she and Leonard worked so well together, both hated being up later than necessary, even if it was a school day.  
Leonard sleepily chuckled, “Kind of too late for that,” he said, leaning over to kiss the lump.  
After two minutes, Elizabeth actually got up, sitting up in the bed, she glanced at her other two teammates, trying her hardest to not look murderous, though she guessed she was failing though, not like she cared, she just hated being up before her body wanted to. Her long, red hair was a mess, as it usually was as she showered before going to sleep.  While she was slow to wake up most days, she snapped awake when she noticed both her new teammates’ faces getting redder by the second, realizing the reasoning was the fact that she was topless, something she had gotten used to doing around Leonard, but not around other people. She screamed, quickly covering herself with bedsheet. Leonard handed her a shirt, and once she was wearing something, she glared at the two girls that were still trying to hide the bit of blush on their faces.   
“Why are we up this early,” she snapped, her want to go back to sleep evident.   
“We have to unpack,” Blake said, gesturing with her suitcase in hand, right as it fell open, “And clean.”  
Leonard and Elizabeth sighed, the both of them knew this had to be done, but didn’t want to be up this early to do it.

 

Zinnea still had a look of shock and confusion on her face, wondering what the heck was going on.   
“Hold up,” she says, “Before we do anything, what the fuck is this? I have known you all for less than two days and I am under the impression that it’s the same for the rest of you. So why the fuck are two people who have only known each other for two days sharing a bed, and one of them is topless!”  
Everyone looks at her slightly confused, realization dawning on Leonard’s face after a few seconds when he realizes something.   
“Sorry,” he says sheepishly, glancing at Elizabeth, “We probably should have said something.”  
“Elizabeth and I having been dating for eigh-“  
“Ten,” Elizabeth corrected.   
“-ten years,” Leonard says, looking at Blake and Zinnea, both with stunned looks on their faces, before turning back to his girlfriend, “Really, ten years, has it been that long, man, time flies. Anyway, we’ve been together for a very long time, we probably should have said something sooner, but we went through a lot yesterday, so it slipped our minds.”  
Zinnea and Blake just nodded, still quite shocked from the reveal. Quietly the team got ready for the day, and the unpacking of their stuff.

 

 

Once everyone was in proper uniform, Blake’s own insistence, just because she had no idea how long this could take, the team got to unpacking. Zinnea hung up a poster of Jeff and Casey Lee Williams. Leonard noted that it was signed, slightly impressed, he carried on putting away his various clothes, before taking a small shelving unit and unloading five boxes onto the lower shelf. He would try and get his new teammates to play his card game later, once they had gotten to know each other a little better. Meanwhile Blake was unloading her small book collection, including her copy of Ninjas of Love, which she forgotten about, shame and embarrassment covering her face as she tried to hide the novel of pure smut that was her guiltiest pleasure. Meanwhile, Elizabeth hung the one painting for their new room, one of her prized possessions, an image she dreamed once, but it was so vivid, she spent the next week trying to get it perfect. The image was a castle in upon a mountain, surrounded by darkness, except for two figures, one was bathed in a dark aura, his hands covered in armor, the other carried a large weapon on her back, it was almost twice her size, long hair flowing down her back as her hand was on the other’s shoulder, a silent reassurance that she was always there for him. She knew who the two people were, but the castle was something that confused and scared her, what that place was something she never truly knew.

 

After everything was in place, a slight problem was discovered, mostly by the messy pile of the four beds in the center of the room.   
“Well,” Zinnea said, looking at the pile, “that’s not good.”  
“It is a bit more cramped than I thought it was going to be,” replied Blake.   
“We only need three beds,” Leonard pointed out.   
“True,” Elizabeth responded, “but we still don’t have enough room.”  
“I always did like my suspended bed back home,” Zinnea said, the others look at her with confusion, “What, I have wings, I might as well use them as much as possible.”  
No arguments were made as the four got to work on Zinnea’s new bed, and after an intense match of rock-paper-scissors between Blake and Leonard, it was positioned over Blake’s bed, suspended using rope they had found in the storage closet down the hall.   
Satisfied with their work, the four sat down as Blake started to look through a small binder that had been lying on her bed.   
“What’s that,” Zinnea asked.   
“Our schedule,” Blake stated, not looking up from the binder, “I took the liberty of planning out our classes for here, we for the most part have classes together; the first one is at 9 o’cloc-“  
“Did you just say 9,” Leonard said, sitting up as quickly as he could, “Blake, it’s 8:50.”  
Everyone’s eyes widened as they realized how little time they had left, rushing out the dorms, they left JNPR confused for a second until they all realized what time it was, literally tripping over themselves get to class on time.

 

* * *

 

“Monsters! Demons! Prowlers of the night! Yes, the creatures of Grimm have many names. But I, merely refer to them as prey.”  
Leonard reminded himself to apologize to Chancellor the first opportunity, his older friend had warned him about how long-winded Professor Port could be. He had laughed it off, not realizing how right his friend was, as Peter Port was probably the world’s most educational windbag.   
“And you shall too,” Port continued, “Once you have graduated from this prestigious academy.”  
Leonard was about ready to kill this man, for no other reason but to shut him up. He couldn’t believe that he was worried about being late for this class. When they had gotten here, the entirety of team SNOW and CFVY were here, that included Orion. Leonard was still uncertain how they had convinced him to get out of bed any earlier than he usually does, though the murderous look he occasionally shot Weiss was a strong indication of what happened. Then JNPR, CRDL, and what was left of CYPR all came busting through the door at once, sending everyone sprawling to the ground, except for Pyrrha, who after helping Jaune up, just sauntered over to the closest seat before Port’s long-winded ‘speech’ kicked off seconds later.  
“Now as I was saying,” Port snapped Leonard out of his thoughts, “Vale, as well as the other three kingdoms, are safe havens in an otherwise, treacherous world. Our planet is teeming with creatures that would nothing more than to tear you to pieces. And that’s where we come in. Huntsman! Huntresses,” On that last word, he suggestively winked at one of the girls in the classroom, “Individuals who have sworn to protect those who cannot protect themselves. From what you ask? Well, the very world!”  
One of the members of team CYPR sarcastically cheered, everyone looked at him, with his team leader, head in hands, just trying not to slap him.   
“That is what you are training to become. But first, a story.”  
Leonard forced himself not to groan, he couldn’t take it anymore.  
Port started his tale anyways, much to the entire class’s displeasure, “A tale of a young, handsome man. Me, when I was a young boy…”  
At this point, most of the class had zoned out this point, no one wanted to hear this. While all this was going on, Weiss Schnee, who at this point had copied everything on the board, word for word, as well as what little information the professor had given out during his speech at beginning of class, slowly she had become furious, just done with this class, partly because she could not stand the portly windbag who was supposed to be in charge of Grimm Taxonomy, partly due to the fact that her first day at Beacon had been complete chaos and now was stuck with the final thing driving her mad, her partner, this man who just seemed to be able to annoy her without even trying, the attitude he had given her this morning, trying to make sure her team wasn’t late on the first day, the fact that all that attitude was specifically aimed at her, since he had no qualms with listening to Samantha or Natalia when they had asked him to get moving, it was like he was specifically trying to antagonize her, but it wasn’t all the time, it was only when she tried to be bossy, but she was a Schnee, she may not be head of her own team, but she was going to at least make sure her partner was not going to drag her down. And she was going to prove to him that she was not someone to be messed with.  
Port’s speech was winding down, he was now talking about the moral of his story, the true qualities of a Huntsman.   
“A true Huntsman must be honorable. They must be dependable and strategic. A true Huntsman should be well-educated and wise. So,” turning to the crowd he asked a question no one expected on day one, “Who among you believes themselves to be the embodiment of these traits.”  
Weiss’s hand shot up before anyone else could respond, “I do, sir,” the fury was in her voice, as she was about ready to explode on Orion, but proving to him that she was not to be trifled with would suffice at the moment. Her three teammates looked at her in surprise, as Port walked over to a cage he had stationed at the side of the classroom.   
“Well then,” he said as he walked over, “let’s find out. Step forward and face your opponent.”

 

Leonard had noticed the cage earlier, especially when he sat down to it growling. Leonard wanted to fight whatever monster the crazy old man had brought in, but knew he would have to use his semblance to survive, and he wasn’t ready to do that, at least not here.

Weiss in the meantime had stepped out of the classroom to change into her combat clothes, now standing in her pure white skirt and coat, she pulled out Myrtenaster, ready to face down the beast.  
“Go get’em Ice Queen,” Orion shouted, trying to be a little supportive, considering he was kind of an ass in the morning. Weiss just shot him a glare of annoyance, shutting up her partner instantly.   
“Alright,” Professor Port announced, “Let the match begin.”  
In one fell swing on his weapon, he busted the lock on the cage, unleashing the beast inside, a Boarbatusk, a pig-like Grimm with long tusks and armor plating all over its body, except for one spot. “What, not what you were expecting?”  
Wasting no time the beast charged Weiss, knocking her aside as it passed, metal clanging against bony plating. As it charged her again, she rushed it, hoping to find a chink in the armor. Instead she found herself grappling with it, her weapon caught in the two large tusks.   
“Bold, new approach,” commented Port, “I like it!”  
Weiss was not having fun though, her weapon flying from her hands when Orion tried to show a little encouragement, earning him another harsh glare before Weiss was sent sprawling to the ground.  
“Now what will you do without your weapon,” asked Port.  
The rhetorical question was never truly answered as Weiss dodged the next charge. Sprinting to where her rapier landed, she barely had time to recover before the next attack.   
“Weiss, go for the belly, there’s no armor-” she immediately shot a glare up at her partner, silencing, before screaming back at him, “I know that, will you just shut up!”  
Fortunately the Grimm was stunned from colliding with wall, leaving a little breathing room as Weiss calmed herself. The Boarbatusk launched itself again, turning into a spinning wheel of death, the blow would have shattered Weiss’s aura, left her completely defenseless, instead she created two glyphs, one blocked the attack, sending the monster onto its back, completely stunned. Using the second glyph she launched herself at the beast, plunging her weapon into its exposed underside killing it in an instant. As its corpse lay there, smoke slowly rolling off it, Port congratulated her.   
“Bravo! It appears we are indeed in the presence of a true huntress in training,” the bell ringing before he could say more, “I’m afraid that is all the time we have for today. Remember to cover the assigned reading and stay vigilant. Class dismissed!”

 

* * *

 

As everyone walked away, people going off to do whatever needed to be done, Orion got pulled aside by Weiss.   
“What the fuck is wrong with you,” Weiss shouted, she was sick and tired of having to deal with this annoyance that had been a problem since day one.  
Orion, normally staring her down, almost trying to challenge her at every step, instead looked sorrowful, he had realized that he pushed her a little too far.  
“Sorry,” not looking her in the eyes as he apologized, “I didn’t realize how far I was pushing you. You are quite easy to rile up anyways, so it’s not like I’m truly trying here, but I’ll try to be less stressful.”  
Weiss felt her anger slowly fade, it was partially because he meant it, and that touched her in a way she hadn’t felt in years, but it also felt like it was being drained from her.  
“Alright,” she said, trying to steady herself before saying anything else, an accusing tone in her voice when she spoke again, “But what exactly are you doing?”  
Orion just smiled, “Figured it out that quickly, you are a sharp one.”  
Weiss just stared at him, “And what is that supposed to mean?”  
“It means you’ve figured out my semblance, and I should be listening to it more often, but we just met two days ago, so it’s still adjusting, all these new faces makes it hard sometimes.”  
Weiss finally put it together, “You’re an empath.”  
Orion nodded, “That’s putting it lightly, and I can also drain the emotions of others to enhance my own strength and aura. I can only draw small amounts unless given permission to do otherwise. Once I get use to you three being around all the time, it will help as a stress reliever...man, Leonard was right, I’d make an excellent masseuse.”  
Weiss was stunned, “Do the others know?”  
“They figured it out last night while you were showering, I may have made a comment at them not to get too frisky since they were around others now.”  
Weiss didn’t even want to know what that meant, but made a mental note to keep her emotions more in check around her partner, really hoping he didn’t realize how she felt about certain people.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, yea, if you hadn't figured it out yet, Leonard and Elizabeth have been dating for awhile, and they are not the only ones(We will talk more about Samantha and Natalia's relationship in the future, it's just hard to fit it into the story).  
> Weiss's fight sounds a lot more intense in words, I mean, it was still cool in the animation, but something about the ability to give it life through words made it sound better.  
> Also, I have revealed another Semblance, Orion is an empath, I originally wanted to do something else, but I have a scene lined up for him way later that is just going to be amazing, trust me, you will love it.


	9. Chapter 8: Burdens

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blake deals with doubt in her new role and Leonard deals with the possibility of other's dealing with his curse.
> 
> Also, some Curse Immunity adorbs, seriously, I know they're my OC's, but these two are adorable.

It had been a month into their first year at Beacon, everyone was finally getting into the swing of it, classes had been running smoothly for the most part, the team’s first few training sessions had gone well, but even with all of this, doubt had started to creep into Blake Belladonna’s thoughts, she did not feel like she had earned the position, and after the chaos of their first week wound down, she couldn’t help but feel like she was picked by mistake. She didn’t feel like a leader, with Leonard and Elizabeth constantly together, sharing a secret that had brought out a side of Leonard she hadn’t expected from the young man, he was normally calm or cocky, the outburst of pure anger was a moment Blake could understand, as she could easily be in the same position. However, this team felt like a torture to lead, if she had been true about herself with her teammates, she would feel like she could do this, instead, she felt nothing but pain. She couldn’t do it anymore, she was going to have to talk about it with someone soon, and hopefully whoever she talked to would be able to put someone else in charge, just any of her teammates would be able to do a better job than her, she knew it.

* * *

 

Leonard wished he could say something to them, at least get the guilt he was feeling for hiding what he was from his new teammates off his chest, but he was afraid, afraid on how the two would react. Elizabeth wanted to tell them sooner, but she saw what Leonard saw, the pain in Blake’s eyes whenever she looked at Zinnea, like something inside her was conflicting, she was fighting an inner war and neither of them knew what it was about, they had suspicions, but they were afraid that if they pushed this on her, it might shatter whatever sanity kept her calm demeanor as her normal state. They had considered telling Zinnea, but it felt wrong to keep a secret from just their team leader, so they left it as is. It didn’t help when they had surprised their two new teammates with the ‘news’ of how long they had been together, fortunately they were nice enough to not ask the obvious questions, especially the really inappropriate one. Leonard shook his head, trying not to think about that day, especially since they were sharing a room with others now. Though Leonard’s current task was starting to become enough a distraction that he didn’t have to think about anything else.  
“Babe,” he asked, getting annoyed with the fact he couldn’t find what he was looking for, “Where are my earbuds?”  
Elizabeth looked at him confused for a second, before blushing in embarrassment when she realized what she forgot to do.  
“Oh Dust,” she screamed, instantly digging through her things, frantically searching for something, “I’m so sorry, I forgot that I hid it.”  
“Why did you hide it,” Leonard asked, he wasn’t upset, just curious.  
“We were going to meet new people and I wanted a good first impres-,“ Elizabeth was cut off suddenly when suddenly when her partner pressed his lips to her own. Even though the kiss was short, she still enjoyed every second of it. Even after all this time, she loved how he made her feel, the most dangerous man in the world, and yet she couldn’t feel safer in moments like this. They both knew that either Blake or Zinnea were still in the room, but they didn’t really care, they were like this in the later years of Signal, why stop now.

* * *

 

After finally finding his earbuds, Leonard went on a walk around the school. He needed to stretch his legs, especially since it was one of the few ‘free’ days they had recently, being cramped up in classrooms for the most part. He just needed to stretch his legs and some of his favorite GrimmCat tunes could help with that, his favorite music always did help his mood. Leonard continued his walk, when one song went to the next, he heard something. Pausing his music, he peeked around the corner to see Blake talking to Professor Port, Leonard knew he shouldn’t eavesdrop like this, but with how Blake had started acting after the first week, he wanted to know if there was something wrong.  
“Professor Port,” Blake called out, she had been hoping to find Professor Ozpin or Goodwitch, but he would do.  
“Ms. Belladonna,” he cheerily responded, before asking the obvious question, “Today is supposed to be an off day, is there anything I can help you with?”  
Blake swallowed, still nervous about doing this, but she still thought it was the best decision, “I would like to step down as leader of Team BLZE.”  
One of Port’s eyebrows perked up by the raven-haired girl’s request, “And why is that?”  
“I feel like Ozpin made a mistake putting me as team leader,” she bluntly responded.  
Port paused, shocked, not expecting the response, but his response did not change, “That’s preposterous.”

* * *

 

As Leonard was listening he heard a voice behind him.  
“You know, you shouldn’t spy on your teammates like this.”  
Leonard jumped, turning around to see Professor Ozpin.  
“Dust, don’t scare me like that.”  
Ozpin said nothing, sipping his coffee, just looking at Leonard as he waited for the question that hung in the air.  
“She’s not right, is she,” Leonard asked, “You didn’t make a mistake, did you?”  
“Leonard, I have made more mistakes than any man, woman, or child on this planet. At the moment, I don’t believe any of my choices this semester to be among them,” He paused to take another sip, “Though I’m pretty certain on why she feels that way,” he finished, shooting a slightly accusatory glance at Leonard.  
“I know,” Leonard said sheepishly, “But I’m still nervous, these two I’ve barely known for a month, it took a full year to tell Elizabeth, and she found out by accident. We still need time to see where they stand,” Leonard took a deep breath before continuing, “And it’s not like we don’t have reason. Blake’s hiding something, this pained look every time she looks at Zinnea, when she thinks when no one is watching. It’s just enough to keep us from telling them.”  
“Them?”  
“Yea, we haven’t told Zinnea either. We’re not sure if she’d be able to keep a secret, and even if she could, it would feel wrong hiding my secret from just our team leader.”  
Leonard then looked at Ozpin, “It’s safe to assume you know what her secret is,” Ozpin just took another sip from his mug, “Of course you do. Look, I’m not going to ask about it, she’ll tell us when she’s ready.”  
“You should at least try to open up to her.”  
“What is that supposed to mean?”  
“She can’t be a leader if her soldiers keep her in the dark.”  
Leonard looked stunned as Ozpin left. After he left, Leonard finished his walk, contemplating what Ozpin had said, when he got back, Blake was still out, he had gotten an idea while out, telling Elizabeth, who had been getting some strange texts from Samuel, they waited for their team leader to return.

* * *

 

Blake was shocked, looking at Professor Port, “What,” was the only thing she could say.  
“I’ve believed in Professor Ozpin for many years, and the man’s never once led me astray,” Port stated.  
“Even if I feel like I’m being shut out by my own team,” Blake asked.  
“Ms. Belladonna, I have worked with a great many people here at Beacon, if anything, most were once like you, doubting themselves for reasons I could never fully comprehend, believing that they could never fit in with their team because others were keeping secrets, sometimes for perfectly good reasons, other times because they just didn’t know how to say it without it coming out wrong,” Port paused, letting the still confused student take this all in, “My point is, that your team may not realize how you feel, they have their own doubts, problems, feelings, and even secrets. If you are trying to be the best team leader possible, don’t try to force their problems out of them, but let them know you are willing to listen if they ever need someone to talk to. Now Ms. Belladonna, I have to prep for my next class, hopefully you will take my advice to heart, maybe you will eventually tell them everything as well, trust is a two way street.”  
Port proceeded to make his way back to his office, leaving a slightly stunned Blake Belladonna in his wake.

* * *

 

When Blake finally returned to her dorm, she heard laughing on the other side of the door. Walking in she saw her three teammates laughing about the story Leonard was telling.  
“And then, fucking Orion decides it’s a good idea to rush me. I was caught so off guard, that I kicked him in the nuts. He couldn’t walk properly for a week.” He paused as Zinnea was nearly about to fall off her bed with how hard she was laughing, making a very adorable snort that made Blake start laughing as well, alerting her team that she had returned from wherever she had been all day.  
Leonard was the first to say anything, as Zinnea was still recovering from her laughing fit, “So our fearless leader returns,” he announced, a smirk on his face, like he knew something she didn’t, “Come on, sit,” he said, gesturing to her bed, the smirk gone from his face as he started his next sentence, “We need to talk.”  
Blake sat, not knowing what was happening, but now the doubt and fear were creeping back in, that they were all about to confess something she didn’t want to hear.  
Leonard looked like he was struggling with whatever he wanted to say, until Elizabeth put her hand on his, before speaking.  
“We want to apologize,” she paused, looking up at Zinnea, “To both of you, we’ve been hiding our secrets, and we’re going to try and be a more open in the future.”  
“Does that mean you’re going to tell us what caused Leonard to snap at us,” Zinnea asked, the teasing in her voice.  
“Don’t push it little dragon,” Leonard teased back, “We’ll tell you about it when we’re ready. At the latest we’ll tell you before the Vytal Festival, hopefully it won’t be that late.”  
Looking down from Zinnea’s perch, Leonard locked eyes with Blake, “Look, it’s been wrong pushing both of you out like that. We’ve been so use to being on our own, just the two of us, it’s still difficult to let people we just met in, it took years for us to truly let Orion in, so when we start getting secretive, when we start hiding things, it’s not your fault, it’s ours.”  
Blake was stunned, twice in a month, Leonard had surprised her, it didn’t embarrass her, just surprised her, that this calm, somewhat cocky boy could be so complex. In that moment she realized she wasn’t the only one ‘wearing’ a mask.  
She needed to say this though, because even with what Professor Port had said, she still had doubt eating at her heart.  
“Thank you for trying to be understanding, but even still, I want to ask something of you, all of you,” Blake paused as Zinnea landed from her bed, taking a seat next to Blake, now listening intently, “I was hoping one of you would take over leadership of our team. I don’t believe I can lead this team, I’m sorry.”  
Blake expected her teammates to jump at the opportunity, just the fact that she was willing to step down had left them all stunned. Then the unthinkable happened, they all burst out into laughter. Blake was just shocked, the reaction was nothing like she expected, three people who she imagined all wanted to run a team of their own were laughing, Blake couldn’t wrap her head around it.  
As the calmed down, Leonard spoke, his answer sounding like it could be from any of them, “Sorry, sorry, I know we shouldn’t be laughing at that request, but I can’t believe you’d be serious about that.”  
“I am serious,” Blake shouted, annoyed she was being blown off like this, “I’ve done nothing to earn this position, I was shocked when I was chosen, I don’t think I could ever be a leader, not with the life I’ve led. All of you could do a better job than me.”  
They all just looked at her, then at each other.  
Elizabeth was the first to speak, “Leonard and I might work well together, but we’ve tried to be on teams larger than just the two of us, it ended in disaster. We’re so use to not having to communicate because we’ve learned to basically read our actions, because of that either of us in charge would end in confusion.”  
“So as much as we appreciate the offer,” Leonard continued, “I still think you’d do better than either of us.”  
Blake turned to her partner, hoping she would tell Blake what she wanted to hear.  
Zinnea just shrugged, “I just can’t, if I could, I would, but you are the best fit for us Blake, even if you don’t realize it yet. We just have to finally be true to ourselves, or at least true enough that we can all work together,” Zinnea paused, putting her hand on Blake’s shoulder, a smile on her face as she spoke, “You’re doing fine.”  
Blake almost wanted to cry, she hadn’t expected this, a team of people who actually cared, it was something she never got with ‘him’, no, she wasn’t going to think about that, not now. By now she was in tears, Zinnea pulled her in for a hug, slowly joined by Elizabeth and Leonard.  
When they pulled away, Leonard looked at Elizabeth, then at Zinnea and Blake, “Alright, so if we’re going to start trying to be trusting, there is something I want to do.”  
Blake and Zinnea looked intrigued, not sure what he could be offering.  
“I have a friend on the shady side of town,” Leonard started, “He sent Elizabeth a text earlier today. Apparently he needs my help with something, and I was hoping I could introduce you guys to him.”  
“We wouldn’t want to intrude,” Blake said shyly.  
Leonard just looked at her, a small smile on his face, “We already told him,” He said, “He okayed it, something about his current problem could use a few extra hands.”  
“Why does it matter,” Zinnea asked.  
Leonard paused, getting a little quiet when he answered, “He’s the one who designed my gloves, he and his partner are the only two non-huntsman who know about my semblance; I’ve known them both for years, so he designed these to help me control when I can use my powers.”  
Zinnea and Blake just looked surprised, not knowing what to say, the four of them just didn’t know what to say from there.

 

* * *

 

_One week later_

Leonard was always early for his team’s training sessions, not because he wanted to be, but everyone else had to get their weapons from the locker room beforehand, Leonard wore his weapons, the gloves he wore had miniature claws installed in the fingertips and knuckledusters in the design. This meant that as usual, he was early to practice, sometimes watching the team before them finish practice, usually that meant Team CYPR, with Carolina trying to keep her team in line, usually decking York for some horrible pick up line. It was nice entertainment when it happened, but today was a little different. Leonard entered the training chamber to Team CFVY, the seven foot juggernaut that was Yatsuhashi towering over all of them. Leonard went over to a spare seat to relax until the rest of his team got here, when he heard a distinctive hiss, instantly he was checking gloves, thinking something was wrong with them. Realizing that the sound hadn’t come from him, he found himself looking around, wondering what had caused that noise. Then he saw it, he knew Velvet had an interesting weapon, Coco had been bragging the other day about how she was their secret weapon, she wouldn’t tell anyone how exactly, but Leonard understood, seeing a hardlight copy of his gloves on her hands as she fought several Grimm holograms, using open palm strikes, Leonard was curious if she had copied his semblance as well, the idea terrified him.  
“Hey guys,” he called out, heads turning towards him as he strolled up, Velvet defeating the last Grimm as he did.  
Coco blew the stray lock that hung out from her beret out of her face, “Sup Thorn.”  
“Nothing much, early as usual,” strolling up to Coco, the look on his face got very serious, Leonard was not angry, but concerned, and Coco saw it, “I need to talk to Velvet for a minute.”  
Coco almost said no, but the look he had used was something she had never seen before, she was afraid to push as Leonard strode past her and up to the brown-haired faunas, who looked a little scared, seeing as she had overheard the conversation.  
“Can I help you,” she asked, Velvet was terrified, wondering if she was in trouble for doing something.  
“Yes,” Leonard said, but seeing how Velvet was reacting he changed his tone, “Look, you’re not in trouble, I just wanted to talk about your weapon, and if what you can do is what I think it is.”  
Velvet relaxed, but she was still nervous why he was over here.  
“First, I think it’s pretty cool, not sure where someone managed to get a hardlight generator, but that’s not the important part,” Leonard paused, “I need to know, can you copy semblances?”  
“Of course,” Velvet quickly responded, “half of the weapons I’ve copied would be useless without their respective semblances. That’s what my semblance is, it can copy the semblance of others.”  
Leonard wasn’t too surprised, he had seen some weird semblances in his life, the ability to copy those things felt like something he was bound to run into eventually.  
“Velvet,” Leonard said, “Can I ask you to not use my semblance.”  
Velvet was confused, so Leonard continued, “I assume that the semblance turns off when you’re not using the associate weapon. I can’t do that, I can’t turn this off, it’s a constant thing, and it makes me dangerous. What you’ve done with my weapon is something that I would do to everyone if it weren’t for these gloves, it’s not that I don’t think you can’t handle that kind of power, it’s that I don’t want you to make a mistake, to hurt someone you care about, or worse.”  
Velvet was now staring at her hands, the hardlight gloves now gone, she never realized how dangerous she had been, so close to hurting the others, to hurting…  
“I’m sorry,” she blurted out, “I didn’t reali-“  
Leonard put a hand on her shoulder, stopping her mid-sentence, “Shhh, you didn’t do anything wrong, it’s more my fault than yours, I didn’t realize you were doing this, I should have said something sooner. Look, if you truly want to use this in the future, I would gladly help you be able to do that, it would be a lot of reaction training, but I think you could do it.”  
“You really think so,” Velvet asked.  
“Of course,” Leonard said, “We’re going to be huntsmen and huntresses, there’s going to be a point in your life where you’ll be able to do anything you want, you just got to push yourself for it.”  
Velvet nodded as Leonard walked back towards her team and his own as they entered the training room floor.  
“What was that about,” Fox signed.  
“Something you already have an idea about,” Leonard replied as he walked past, Fox’s jaw dropping as he did.

 

* * *

 

_Meanwhile, in a building on the shady side of town_

“Mizayaki, can you please tell these two not to bother me while I’m working?”  
“Samuel, they’re just kids, let them have their fun.”  
“Their ‘fun’ is really distracting, seriously, I’m almost done with the device.”  
“Fine, Red, Blondie, please stop distracting Samuel. Oh don’t give me that look, I know you two want to see what he’s doing, but you can’t help him with how you are now, and as soon as he finishes it, we should be able to help you to, or at least be able to find someone who can.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Red and Blondie are references to an event in the past here, you probably know who they are, but we're not meeting them yet, end of the chapter is when we'll talk about it.  
> As for Blake's doubt, that stems from a certain red-headed asshole, who will get the shit beat out of him when the time comes.  
> And yes, Leonard knows MSL, we'll talk about it, eventually.  
> Also, spot the music reference, hint, it deals with a certain cat.
> 
> Finally, side characters that appeared in this chapter.  
> -More team CYPR, Carolina will constantly being trying to keep herself from decking York.  
> -Samuel Church  
> -Mizayaki Shinraku


	10. Chapter 9: Jaunedice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jaune's time at Beacon had gotten worse and worse, the secret he's been keeping may destroy him, unless he can finally stand up for himself.

Jaune found himself out of breath, this wasn’t the first time he had gotten himself into this position, sparring practice was something he was still not good at, as was most of the curriculum at Beacon; he really wasn’t expecting it to be this difficult. So here he was again, facing down Cardin Winchester in sparring practice, being beaten down most of the match, Cardin just stood there, his huge mace on his left shoulder, laughing at Jaune. Finally getting himself steady, Jaune rushed Cardin, his downward swing sliced through only air as Cardin sidestepped, slamming Jaune in the side with his mace, his shield flying from his hand, it scattered to the floor. Now with only his sword, he took it in a two-handed grip, rushing back at Cardin, his overhead slash blocked by the handle of Cardin’s weapon. The larger man using his size as leverage to push back Jaune.  
“This is the part where you lose,” Cardin taunted.  
“Over my dead-,” Jaune started, before Cardin kneed him in the crotch, dropping him to the ground.  
Just before Cardin could deliver a finishing blow, the buzzer sounded, ending the match.  
“Cardin,” Professor Goodwitch shouted, “That’s enough,” flicking away his weapon with her semblance as she ended the match.  
Turning to the rest of the class, she started her lecture,” Students, as you can see Mr. Arc’s aura has dropped into the red. In a tournament style duel, this would indicate that Jaune is no longer fit for battle and that the official may call the match.”  
“Mister Arc,” she said turning to Jaune, “Please try to refer to your scroll during combat gauging your aura will help you decide when it is appropriate to attack or when it’s better to move to a more defensive strategy. We wouldn’t want you to get gobbled up by a Beowolf, now would we?”  
“Speak for yourself,” Cardin muttered.  
Goodwitch ignored the taller boy’s words as she turned back to the crowd, “Remember students, the Vytal Festival will be at the end of the semester. It won’t be long before students from other kingdoms start arriving in Vale, so keep practicing.”  
Many of the people in the crowd were absolutely giddy, with Orion and Leonard discussing on whether or not Braxton was going to show up, and others just hoping to meet new people.  
“Those who choose to compete in the combat tournament will be representing all of Vale.”  
As the rest of the student body left, Pyrrha just stared at Jaune, worry in her eyes as he just hung his head in shame.

* * *

 

“So,” Nora began, “There we were, in the middle of the night-”  
“It was day,” Ren interrupted.  
“We were surrounded by Ursai,” Nora continued.  
“They were Beowolves,” Ren corrected.  
“Dozens of them,” Nora shouted.  
“It was only two,” Ren said, Nora ignoring him.  
“And in the end, Ren and I took them down and made a boatload of lien selling Ursai,” she finished, leaving everyone who was truly listening amazed, but confused.  
“She’s been having this reoccurring dream for nearly a month now,” Ren explained, everyone just nodded, realizing how it made sense.

Jaune had spent that time absent-mindedly poking at his lunch, both Pyrrha and Leonard had been watching him, Pyrrha as his partner, and Leonard because he knew exactly what was going on, even if no one had told him. He had been the one to figure it out and told Pyrrha after the first month.  
“Jaune,” Pyrrha asked, the blonde boy was staring off to space more and more, “Are you okay?”  
He didn’t even respond until Pyrrha placed a hand on his shoulder, snapping him out of whatever daydream he was having, “Oh, yeah,” he replied, “Why?”  
“You seem pretty out of it,” Leonard pointed out, “You sure?”  
Jaune realized that everyone at the table was staring at him, the entirety of BLZE and the rest of JNPR had concerned looks on their faces.  
“Guys, I’m fine,” Jaune said with nervousness in his voice, “Seriously.”  
Before anyone could question him, a loud hoot could be heard several tables down. Velvet had found a table while she waited for the rest of her team to get back from the bathroom, and leaving herself alone meant Cardin and his team decided to pick on her, mocking the poor rabbit faunas for how she looked, she did her best to ignore them, but it never did work well, this was at least the third time this week, even still, this couldn’t distract Pyrrha for long.  
“Jaune,” she said, “Cardin’s been picking on you since the first week of school.”  
“Who,” Jaune asked in mock surprise, “Cardin Winchester? Nah, he just likes to mess around, you know? Practical jokes!”  
“He’s a bully,” Leonard said, “Always was, always will be.” Leonard spoke from experience, he had been on the receiving end of Cardin’s nature years ago. It had stopped after he had wiped the floor with the jerkwad multiple times during combat practice at Signal.  
“Oh come on, name one time he’s ‘bullied’ me,” Jaune scoffed, using air quotes when he said bullied.  
People pointed out the times he had knocked books out of Jaune’s hands, the times he had activated Jaune’s shield as he entered a doorway, trapping the blonde there, Leonard even pointed out the time he had shoved Jaune into one of the weapon lockers while Professor Goodwitch was explaining the purpose of the lockers, sending him off campus, actually crashing Jaune into the Emerald Forest.  
“Oh, come on,” Jaune said, “I didn’t land that far from the school.”  
“Jaune,” Pyrrha said firmly, getting him to meet her eyes, “You know if you ever need help, you can just ask.”  
“Ooh,” Nora nearly screamed, “We’ll break his legs!”  
“I’ll gladly use my semblance on him,” Leonard pointed out, before looking at Elizabeth, who was staring him down, “What, he of all people would deserve it.”  
“Guys,” Jaune said, “Really, it’s fine. Besides, it’s not like he’s only a jerk to me; he’s a jerk to everyone.”  
“Oww,” Velvet whined, “That hurts.”  
Looking back down to where Velvet was seated, they saw Cardin pulling on one of her ears, “Please, stop,” she cried weakly.  
“See,” Cardin said, completely ignoring the poor Faunas he was torturing, “I told you it was real.”  
“What a freak,” Russel said, causing the rest of his team to laugh at Velvet.  
“Atrocious,” Pyrrha said, furious at what she had seen, “I can’t stand people like him.”  
“He’s not the only one,” Blake pointed out.  
“Yea,” Zinnea said, “We got it rough…I just wish Velvet would let me help, we Faunas gotta stick together.”  
As the rest talked about whether or not they should ignore Coco and Velvet’s request to not fuck up Cardin for bullying Velvet, Pyrrha watched Jaune leave the cafeteria, just wishing he would ask for help.

Cardin was watching too, an almost evil grin formed on his face as his thoughts drifted to how he would torture his next victim, Jaune Arc.

 

* * *

 

“Yes,” Dr. Oobleck excitedly shouted, the man fueled by caffeine more than anything else at this point, “Yes, prior to the Faunas Rights Revolution, more popularly known as the Faunas War, human kind of quite adamant about centralizing the Faunas population in Menagerie,” he paused, taking a sip of his endless supply of coffee, “Now, while this must feel like ancient history to many of you, it is imperative to remember that these are relatively recent events! Why the repercussions of the uprising can still be seen to this day,” most of the class had their eyes following Oobleck around the room the exceptions being Jaune, who was asleep, and Cardin, who was completely ignoring the topic, as he continued to speed around, before pausing again to take a sip of his coffee.  
“Now,” he announced, “Have any among you been subjugated or discriminated because of your Faunas heritage?”  
Only two hands went up, Zinnea and Velvet, the latter embarrassed by the fact that she had to do this.  
“Dreadful,” Oobleck announced, “Simply dreadful! Remember students, it is precisely this kind of ignorance that breeds violence,” he took another sip, “I mean, I mean, I mean, look what happened to the White Fang! Now, which one of you young scholars can tell me what many theorists believe to be the turning point in the third year of the war?”  
Weiss’s hand shot up, “The battle at Fort Castle,” she answered.  
“Precisely,” shouted Oobleck, “And, who can tell me the advantage the Faunas had over General Lagune’s forces?”  
At that moment, Jaune was startled awake, hit in the head by a paper football made by Cardin.  
“Hey,” he said, annoyed at the projectile that disturbed him.  
“Mr. Arc,” Oobleck said, rushing over to where Jaune was seated, “Finally contributing to the class! This is excellent! What is the answer?”  
“The answer,” said Jaune, not enjoying being put on the spot like this, “The advantage the Faunas had over this guy’s stuff was…” he glanced at Pyrrha for help, who just gestured at her eyes, “Binoculars.”  
The class laughed weakly as Pyrrha just shook her head.  
“Very funny Mr. Arc,” said Oobleck, clearly not amused, “Cardin! Perhaps you would like to share your thoughts on the subject.”  
“Well, all I know that it’s a lot easier to train an animal than a soldier,” he answered, completely disinterested.  
“If you had a death wish Cardin, all you had to do was ask,” Zinnea shouted, Blake and Leonard instantly holding her back, not wanting to start a fight in class.  
“You’re not the most open-minded individual, are you, Cardin,” Pyrrha asked accusingly.  
“You got a problem,” challenged Cardin.  
“Not at the moment,” Pyrrha retorted, “I do have the answer. Night vision, many Faunas are known to have nearly-perfect sight in the dark.”  
“General Lagune was inexperienced,” continued Blake, who was sitting behind Pyrrha, “And made the mistake of trying to ambush the Faunas in their sleep. His massive army was outmatched, and the General was captured. Perhaps of he’d paid attention in class, he wouldn’t have been remembered as such a failure.”  
Zinnea high-fived Blake as Cardin rose from his seat, prepared to try and kick Blake’s ass.  
“Mr. Winchester,” Dr. Oobleck shouted, “Please take you seat.”  
Jaune snickered before Oobleck dropped a ‘bomb’ on both of them.  
“You and Mr. Arc can both see me after class for additional readings.”

* * *

 

After class, everyone headed out, the last people to leave being the rest of Team JNPR.  
“You guys go ahead,” Pyrrha told Ren and Nora, “I’m going to wait for Jaune.”

* * *

  
Off to the side, Team SNOW was gathered.  
“She really cares about him,” Orion mused.  
“And does that bother you,” asked Samantha, her arm locked with Natalia’s.  
“Maybe,” he answered, “but not in any way that would have resulted from attraction.”  
Both Samantha and Natalia cocked their eyebrows, confused from what he was implying.  
“Just curious what someone like Pyrrha could see in someone like Jaune,” he continued, “Someone who could have anyone wants a nobody, someone who you would walk by in the streets and you wouldn’t even bother to remember them, they would be in your thoughts and then gone.”  
“And that’s what’s bothering you,” Weiss retorted, making Orion just shoot her a look of annoyance.  
“Look Schnee,” he retorted, “Some of us have worries outside of how much our monthly allowance is left.”  
Samantha and Natalia just giggled at the two bickering dolts they had as teammates.  
“Alright you two,” Samantha said, “Let’s go back to our dorm before you two start a screaming match in the hallway.”

* * *

 

Back in Oobleck’s class, Jaune and Cardin sat next to each other while the hyperactive professor lectured them.  
“You two have been struggling in my class since day one,” he stated, “Now, I don’t know if it’s a lack of interest or just your stubborn nature, but whatever it is,” he paused to take another sip of coffee, “It stops now!” That last part emphasized by the slamming of his mug on his desk.  
“You’ve worked hard to gain entrance to this school,” he continued, “And we only accept the best of the best, so I expect you to act like it. History is important, gentleman! If you can’t learn from it, you are destined to repeat it. You will read pages 51 to 91, I want an essay on my desk by next class. Dismissed!”

* * *

 

As Jaune left the class, Cardin shoved him to the ground, laughing to himself as he walked away from the blonde boy sprawled on the ground.  
“You know, I really will break his legs,” Pyrrha said angrily, helping Jaune up.  
Jaune just sighed, not wanting to have this discussion again.  
Pyrrha’s attitude shifted in an instant, eyes lighting up, “I have an idea,” she said excitedly, “Here, come with me,” she dragged Jaune behind her as she headed for the roof.  
Once up on the roof, she and Jaune stood at the edge, looking over the entire school from where they were.  
“Pyrrha, I know that I’m going through a hard time right now,” Jaune said, looking down as he did, “But I’m not _that_ depressed. I can always be a farmer or something.”  
Pyrrha looked down, immediately realizing what she had done, she shoved him back from the ledge.  
“That’s not why I brought you up here,” she said, “Jaune, I know you’re having a difficult time in class and that you’re still not the strongest of fighters, so,” she paused, taking a breath, trying to calm herself, “I want to help you!”  
Jaune was just confused, “W-what?”  
“We can train up here after class where no one can bother us,” Pyrrha excitedly continued.  
“You think I need help,” asked Jaune, a little embarrassed, he knew it was probably true, he just never expected someone to say it.  
“N-no,” Pyrrha quickly responded, feeling like she had just put her foot in her mouth again, “No, that’s not what I meant.”  
“But you just said it,” pointed out Jaune.  
“Jaune,” Pyrrha said gently, “Everybody needs a little push from time to time. It doesn’t make you any different from the rest of us. You made it to Beacon; that speaks volumes of what you’re capable of!”  
Jaune just turned away from Pyrrha, not wanting to talk about this anymore, “You’re wrong,” he muttered, “I don’t belong here.”  
“That’s a terrible thing to say,” Pyrrha interjected, “Of course you do!”  
“No, I don’t,” Jaune shouted, he was furious, not at Pyrrha, but himself.  
He sighed, deciding if he was going to do this, it would be to his partner, someone he could trust.  
“I wasn’t really accepted into Beacon,” he said.  
Pyrrha was confused, “What do you mean?”  
“I mean, I didn’t go to combat school, I didn’t pass any tests,” Jaune continued, “I didn’t earn my spot at this academy. I lied! I got my hands on some fake transcripts and I lied.”  
Pyrrha was stunned, “What,” she asked, “But, why?”  
“Because, this is what I’ve always wanted to be,” said Jaune, “My father, my grandfather, and his father before him were all warriors! They were all heroes! I wanted to be one too. I was just never good enough.”  
Pyrrha reached out, putting her hand on Jaune’s shoulder as she spoke, “The let me help you.”  
“I don’t want help,” Jaune retorted, getting himself out of Pyrrha’s reach, “I don’t want to be the damsel in distress! I want to be the hero!”  
“Jaune, I” Pyrrha started.  
“I am tired of being the loveable idiot, stuck in the tree while his friends fight for their lives,” he looked at Pyrrha, “Don’t you understand!? If I can’t do this on my own, then what good am I?”  
Pyrrha tried to reach out for Jaune, wanting to hug the poor boy, but when she did, he pulled away again, closing himself off.  
“Just leave me alone,” he said, “Okay.”  
“If that’s what you think is best,” Pyrrha said, still wanting to comfort him, but per his wishes, and against her own judgement, she left.  
Jaune wandered on that roof, not realizing the dorm below belonged to Team CRDL, until the very person he wanted to see the least right now climbed from a window below onto the roof.  
“Oh, Jaune,” Cardin said, announcing his presence on the roof.  
Jaune whipped around, not knowing Cardin had climbed up there, “Cardin!?” he was shocked to see him there.  
“I couldn’t help but overhear you two from my dorm room,” Cardin said, a devilish grin on his face, “So, you snick into Beacon? I’ve got to say Jaune, I never expected you to be such a rebel.”  
“Cardin, please,” Jaune said panicked, “Don’t tell anyone!”  
“Jaune, come on! I would never rat out a friend like that,” Cardin looked a little hurt when he spoke, it was fake, but Jaune didn’t know that.  
“A friend,” asked Jaune, confused by what he just heard.  
“Of course,” said Cardin, grabbing Jaune in a headlock, “We’re friends now, Jauney Boy! And the way I see it, as long as you’re there for me when I need you, we’ll be friends for a long time.”  
Releasing Jaune from the headlock where he was struggling to breathe, Cardin looked down on him, “That being said, I really don’t have time to do the extra reading Dr. Oobleck gave us today. Think you could take care of that for me, buddy?”  
Jaune only coughed as Cardin walked away, “That’s what I thought,” Cardin said menacingly, “Don’t worry Jaune; your secret’s safe with me.”

* * *

 

That night Jaune didn’t get any sleep, as he spent too much time writing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> God I hate this part!  
> Look, Rooster Teeth, I know Team JNPR plays a big role in the story of RWBY, but this and Forever Fall(the next chapter) feel so forced, it's kind of painful to watch, I mean, it was necessary for Jaune to become a character that I like in the more recent seasons of RWBY, but this story-line in Volume 1 felt so painful. Unfortunately, with how I'm writing this story, I got to go through those four episodes, and it makes me want to kill season 1 Jaune.  
> Alright, rant over, sorry about that, but this is at least making me want to get this chapter and the next chapter done sooner rather than later.
> 
> As for 'side' characters  
> -Cardin Winchester(Beacon's #1 Douchebag)  
> -Russell Thursh(#1 Douchebag Lackey)
> 
> Seriously though, fuck Team CRDL, fuck this small plot line, and fuck the fact that I got to write soemthing like this in order to get character development


	11. Chapter 10: Forever Fall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jaune's now in an even deeper hole than before, can he finally stand up to his tormentor before he does something he regrets.

The Team JNPR dorm was mostly quiet, mostly as Nora was currently jumping on her bed, the hyperactive girl unable to sit still for the life of her.  
“How come Jaune gets back so late,” she asked, still absent-mindedly bouncing on her bed.  
“He’s become rather scarce ever since he’s been fraternizing with Cardin,” Ren pointed out.  
It had been two weeks since this started, the first quarter almost over, and in that time, Jaune had become fast ‘friends’ with Cardin Winchester, this usually meant him staying out late, doing whatever Cardin asked of him, Pyrrha didn’t know why, and she refused to talk to him, he wanted to be left alone, he was getting what he wished, and it infuriated her.  
“That’s weird,” Nora said, both Ren and Nora had no idea what Jaune had told Pyrrha, so they were more confused than her, “Doesn’t he know we have field trip tomorrow,” the ginger asked, “We need our rest,” that last sentence emphasized as she landed flat on her bed, trying to act the least bit tired.  
“I’m sure our leader knows exactly what he’s doing,” said Pyrrha, the fury in her voice could barely be contained, causing Ren and Nora to looked worriedly at each other, concerned about whatever what was going on between the two.

 

Outside the room, Jaune looked in, afraid to go back into the room with Pyrrha acting how she was. Sighing he let the door click, only to hear a familiar voice behind him.  
“Hey Jaune,” Jaune turned around to see Leonard, in a plain, white t, and sleeping shorts, his brown hair an absolute mess, “You didn’t get yourself locked out again,” he asked.  
“Nope,” nervously replied Jaune, “Got it,” pulling out his scroll, his keycard to his room, among other things.  
“Alright, so where’ve you been,” Leonard asked, still curious about why Jaune was up so late.  
Jaune sighed, he was so tired that he didn’t even bother trying to make something up.  
“I messed up,” he said, “I did something I shouldn’t have and now Cardin’s got me on a leash and Pyrrha won’t even talk to me,” he sighed, “I think coming to this school was a bad idea. I’m a failure.”  
Leonard just stared at Jaune as he slid down the door, his eyes spoke a single word as Jaune met his eyes, ‘no’.  
“What,” Jaune asked, annoyed.  
“You’re a leader now, Jaune,” Leonard said, “You’re not allowed to be a failure.”  
“But, what if I’m a failure at being a leader,” Jaune asked.  
Leonard rolled as he sat down next to Jaune.  
“You know,” Jaune said with a small laugh, “You’re not the easiest person to talk to about this kind of stuff.”  
“I know,” replied Leonard as he finally got comfortable, “Look Jaune, maybe you were a failure when you were a kid. You might’ve even been a failure the day we first met, but you can’t be one now.”  
Jaune had just slid lower and lower down the door as Leonard had spoken.  
 “Look,” Leonard said, “I’m going to tell you the short version of what we had to talk about with Blake. You’re no longer allowed to think you’re a failure, no longer allowed to mope in whatever self-doubt you have because it’s not just about you anymore. You’ve got a team now Jaune.”  
Jaune just kind of looked down dejectedly as Leonard stood back up, offering Jaune a nylon-gloved hand to get him back on his feet.  
“So whatever you’re dealing with Cardin, don’t let it control you, your team comes first,” Leonard said, “And if it makes you feel any better, whatever Cardin is holding over you, Ozpin probably already knows, and he let you in anyway, think about that.”  
Jaune was stunned, “What,” he stammered, “Why would you think that?!”  
“Because,” Leonard replied, “If he knows my secret, he knows yours as well. Night, Jaune.”  
And like that, Leonard was back in his room, leaving a slightly more confident Jaune standing out in the hall alone, before he could enter his own dorm, his scroll started ringing. Opening it up, Jaune immediately who it was, while Leonard’s talk gave him some confidence, he wasn’t ready yet.  
“Hey! It’s your buddy Cardin. I know you’re probably busy with that dust project I gave you, buut, I need you to go out and get me a bag of rapier wasps,” Jaune gulped as the scroll continued to talk, “And make sure they’ve got some reaaally big stingers. It’s important, so don’t screw this up.”  
With that conversation done Jaune hung his head as he wandered off into the night to grab some rapier wasps.

 

Leonard closed the door quietly, as he was sure his teammates were asleep. While Zinnea and Blake slept away, Zinnea’s snoring always made Leonard wonder how any of them got any sleep, Leonard saw his girlfriend perk up as he closed the door.  
Walking back over to their bed he leaned in to kiss her on the forehead, “You didn’t have to stay up,” he whispered.  
“I know,” she replied, keeping her voice down to let their teammates sleep, “But it is lonely without you here.”  
Leonard couldn’t help but smile at the sap his girlfriend was, getting into bed she asked what he had gotten up to.  
“Jaune’s dealing with something similar to what Blake was dealing with, I thought I would give him a bit of a confidence boost, and a reminder of what he needs to do,” Leonard answered, slipping his arm around the woman of his dreams and life, she made a face that slightly confused him.  
“What did I say about wearing gloves to bed,” she said accusingly.  
“Oops,” Leonard whispered sheepishly, removing the spare nylon gloves, he threw them into the top drawer of his night table, right next to his actual gloves.  
Letting his bare hands touch her skin always felt amazing, his hands flowing through her long, red, tangles. He could never truly be this intimate with anyone else, and he wouldn’t even try to, just one person was enough. With her head on his chest, bare skin pushed against each other, they fell asleep.

 

* * *

 

_The next day_

The Forever Fall Forest was certainly beautiful, the red leaves reminded Leonard of his partner’s hair. Almost everyone was staring at the forest around them, admiring the beauty of the trees, the exception was Professor Goodwitch, who was making sure everyone was focused on the task on hand.  
“Yes students, the Forest of Forever Fall is indeed beautiful,” she said, “But we are not here to sight-see. Professor Peaches asked all of you to collect samples from the trees deep inside the forest. I’m here to make sure none of you die while doing so.”  
She turned and stopped abruptly, causing Jaune to accidently bump into Cardin, the former trying to play it off as the accident it was with nervous laughter.  
“Each of you is to collect one jar of red sap,” Professor Goodwitch instructed, holding up a jar as an example, “However the forest is full of creatures of Grimm, so be sure to stay with your teammates. We will rendezvous back here at 4:00. Have fun!”  
As the various teams split up to ‘hunt’, Jaune was grabbed by Cardin, “C’mon buddy! let’s go,” he said threateningly.  
Jaune looked wistfully at Pyrrha as she followed Nora and Ren, before walking away from her and following Cardin’s group into the forest. Pyrrha was saddened to see him go, but only because she wanted to help, deal with whatever he was going through.

* * *

 

While the other teams gathered their sap in relative quiet, Team CRDL was relaxing while Jaune did the heavy lifting as was usual nowadays.  
Grunting, Jaune dumped the six jars at his feet before collapsing the labor being more than his tired body could handle.  
“Hey,” Cardin congratulated him, “Great work, Jauney Boy. Now, that wasn’t too hard, was it?”  
“I think I’m allergic to this stuff,” Jaune said from his position on the ground.  
“Great,” Cardin said sarcastically, “So, Jaune, I bet you’re probably asking yourself, ‘why my buddy Cardin asked me to collect six jars of tree sap when there’s only five of us.”  
“That is one of the many questions I’ve asked myself today,” replied Jaune.  
“Well,” Cardin said, the mischievousness in his voice, “Come with me and you’ll find out.”  
Jaune just gulped as he followed Cardin to a ridge overlooking everyone else, SNOW off to the left, Weiss complaining about how she was going to get her outfit dirty with sap, while both Samantha and Natalia went through with the process, their outfits a mess, an attempt to convince Weiss to just do it. BLZE and CFVY on the right, Zinnea talking to Velvet about something while their respective teams stood nearby, Jaune noticed that Leonard was wearing his nylon gloves instead of his other ones, which were currently slung over one shoulder. In the center stood the rest of his team, Pyrrha holding up her jar of sap, while Ren handed a full jar to Nora, who slurped it down before the black-haired boy could hand her the second one, Ren just face-palming at the action.  
“Cardin, what’s going on,” Jaune nervously asked, not liking where this could be going.  
Not turning his head to talk to Jaune, Cardin said one word, “Payback.”  
“Pyrrha,” Jaune asked, knowing he was not going to like where this was going, “What are you-“  
“That’s the girl,” Cardin said, interrupting Jaune’s thought, “Red-haired know-it-all thinks she’s so smart,” Without even stopping, he started explaining the plan, “Alright boys, last night ol’ Jaune managed to round up a whole box of rapier wasps. And now, we’re gonna put’em to work.”  
Cardin’s teammates snickered at the idea, this revenge was something they had been planning for a couple weeks now.  
“Now,” Cardin continued, “According to one of the essays he wrote for me last week, these nasty things looove sweets. I’m thinkin’ it’s time we teach her a thing or two.”  
Pulling Jaune up, Cardin shoved the sixth jar of sap into the blonde’s hands, “And you’re gonna do it,” he ordered.  
“Do what,” gulped Jaune.  
“Hit her with the sap! Either that,” Cardin ordered, before issuing the threat he knew was going to get Jaune to do his dirty work, “or I’ll have a chat with Ms. Goodwitch and you’ll be on the first airship out of Beacon.”  
Jaune looked at the jar in his hands, then back at Cardin who had risen to his full height, staring down at Jaune, a smug grin on his face. He positioned himself to throw the jar, to end any hope he had at becoming a good team leader. He looked at Pyrrha, who was busy filling a second jar, just in case, his hand shaking, seeing the smile on Pyrrha’s face, he finally made his decision.  
“No,” he said, lowering his hand holding the jar.  
“What did you say,” Cardin asked, ready to beat the crap out of Jaune.  
“I said NO,” screamed Jaune, hurling the jar at Cardin, hitting him square in the chest, covering the chest plate of his armor in sap. Cardin laughed a little before narrowing his eyes at Jaune.  
“You’ve done it now,” he said, marching up to Jaune, he grabbed the blonde boy and threw him to the ground, before picking him back up and punching him back down to the ground.  
“You know that wasn’t very smart, Jauney Boy,” Cardin taunted, before picking him back up again, “I’m gonna make sure they send you back to mommy in teeny, tiny pieces,” he finished that threat by spitting in Jaune’s face.  
“I don’t care what you do to me,” muttered Jaune, before locking eyes with his oppressor, “But you are not messing with my team.”  
Cardin lifted Jaune higher, still taunting the blonde, a black eye spreading across his face, “What, you think talk like that makes you tough? You think you’re a big, strong man now?”  
Jaune just smirked as Cardin went to punch him again, then a blinding light shone from out a nowhere, causing Cardin to drop Jaune, his hand in pain. Jaune looked himself, seeing he was completely uninjured, a white light shone around his body. Before he could do anything, he was kicked in the back, sending him face first into the ground.  
Looking up, he saw Cardin standing over him, “Let’s see how much of a man you really are,” taunted brunette.  
Before anyone could make another move, they heard a roar, turning around the five boys saw a colossal Ursa walk towards them. The beast paused, sniffing the air, before landing its gaze on a terrified Cardin, more specifically, the sap covering his chest armor.  
“That’s a big Ursa,” shouted Skye, as the rest of Team CRDL ran from the monster bearing down on their team leader. In a single swipe, the Grimm knocked Cardin aside, leaving Jaune the only one to fight the monster, which held its interest on the sap covering Cardin.

* * *

 

A roar put everyone else on high alert, not sure what had happened.  
“What was that,” asked Leonard, as the rest of Team CRDL came barreling through, “Ursa,” Dove shouted, before Orion grabbed him by the arm, pulling him by the collar, “What? Where,” he demanded, wondering how the hell and Ursa got this close without anyone noticing.  
“Back there,” Dove screamed, pointing back towards where he had come from, “It’s got Cardin.”  
Pyrrha let the jar she was carrying drop to the ground, realization turning to fear on her face, “Jaune,” she cried out, rushing off to help him.  
Leonard turned towards everyone, starting issuing orders like it was natural, but only towards those he knew would listen, “Orion! Take someone and get Professor Goodwitch,” he shouted, before turning towards Elizabeth who helped him get his gloves on, “Let’s go,” he said.  
Turning back for a second Pyrrha shouted at Nora and Ren, “Go with Orion and whoever he takes, there may be more out here.”

* * *

 

Pyrrha, Leonard, and Elizabeth ran up to Cardin crawling away from the giant Ursa, the thing was bigger than anything they had fought during initiation, and it currently had Cardin on the ropes.  
“Crap, crap, crap,” Cardin muttered, desperately trying to get away from the beast.  
“Oh no,” Pyrrha said, but no one was in a major rush to help Cardin, the boy was a bully, a little part of each of them wondered if he deserved this.  
The Ursa raised its massive paw, prepared to deliver a final strike to Cardin, before anyone else could react, the blow was blocked, claws bouncing off hard steel, the shield of Jaune Arc saving Cardin’s life. Everyone was shocked, but Jaune was soon buckling under the weight of the beast.  
Elizabeth readied a shot, her weapon extending to its full size, needing as little distance as possible from barrel to target.  
“Wait,” Pyrrha called out, Elizabeth’s finger moving away from the trigger as the three watched what happened next.  
Jaune threw the Ursa back, getting a good slash across its chest before dodging the next two strikes from the behemoth. Even Leonard was impressed, not sure how to react to the sudden skill coming from the person everyone had written off as last place in the class. The third strike caught Jaune square in the chest, sending him flying back. Undeterred, Jaune was on his feet again, rushing the beast, sword raised, only to be swatted away again. Standing again, Jaune looked at his scroll, seeing his aura level low, he knew this would be his final chance, all or nothing, he rushed the beast again, this time certain he could do it. On the outside of the fight, everyone watching saw what was going to truly happen, Jaune’s shield was too low, he was going to die, but he had no time, to adjust. All of the sudden there was a black light around his shield, it almost snapped back, catching the blow from the monster allowing Jaune to take its head off in a single blow. Jaune and Cardin had no idea what had happened, but Leonard saw it clear as day, his eyes now on Pyrrha, whose hand shone with a similar light.  
“So that’s how you do it,” he quipped, Elizabeth still confused by what she saw.  
“Do what,” she asked.  
Leonard ignored the question, still focused on Pyrrha, “That was you semblance,” he said, “Right?”  
Pyrrha just smiled a little, “You’re a quick one,” she responded, “Yes, it was; my semblance is Polarity.”  
Elizabeth was still kind of confused, “Which is what exactly,” she asked.  
“Magnets,” Leonard answered.  
Pyrrha just sighed, “Yes, I control magnetism,” she said as she walked away.  
“We’re not going to tell them what happened,” Leonard asked.  
Pyrrha just looked back, staring at Jaune, who was proudly putting his weapon away, “We could,” she said, “Or we could keep this our little secret.”

Jaune was now standing over Cardin, wanting to spit on him or something, but he knew that it wouldn’t change anything, instead he offered a Cardin a hand.  
“Holy crap,” said Cardin, clearly impressed by what had happened.  
Jaune had no time for this, so he made a very real threat, “Don’t ever mess with my team, my friends, ever again. Got it?”  
Cardin just nodded as Jaune turned to walk away, leaving the brunette wondering how the hell he was ever going to explain to his team that Jaune Arc saved his life.

 

* * *

 

_That evening_

Jaune found himself on the roof again, staring out over the school, he was so immersed in his thoughts, that he didn’t hear a certain red-head walk up behind him.  
“No Cardin tonight,” Pyrrha jokingly asked, “I thought you two were best buds?”  
Jaune had any retorts die in his throat, he did kind of deserve that for everything that had recently happened.  
“Pyrrha, I’m sorry,” the apology being something Jaune wish he had said earlier, “I was a jerk. You were only trying to be nice and I had all this stupid, macho stuff in my head-“  
“Jaune, it’s okay,” Pyrrha interrupted, thinking it was a better idea than kissing the boy she was now realizing she was in love with.  
 “Your team really misses their leader, you know” she said, trying to be as subtle as possible, “You should really come down, Ren made pancakes. No syrup, you can thank Nora for that.”  
“Wait,” Jaune said as Pyrrha turned to leave, “I know I don’t deserve it after all that happened, but would you still be willing to help me? To help me become a better fighter.”  
Pyrrha smirked, before turning around and strolling up to the boy and effortlessly pushing him over.  
He looked at her insulted; before he could say anything, Pyrrha started giving him tips, “Your stance is all wrong,” she pointed out “You need to be wider and lower to the ground.”  
He smiled as she helped him back up, “Let’s try that again,” she said, the night almost fading away as they started their training.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And it's done...seriously, I know I ranted about this last time, but fuck these two chapters. It's just too forced.  
> It's all over now, the chapter's that cause me shut a headache are over, meaning we can get into the fun stuff, like someone else's secret past.  
> Also, it's at the absolute end, but some of you may have caught the little reference to a story-line we'll get into later.  
> Finally, I might make a chapter between this and the next actual story chapter as some catch up with Team SNOW, depends on how I feel like after I finish the next story chapter.
> 
> As for side characters  
> -Team CRDL(Team ASHL)(Seriously, what a bunch of pricks)  
> -Cardin Winchester  
> -Skye Lark  
> -Dove Bronzewing


	12. Chapter 11: Stress and SNOW

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Exam week is tough when you drain off emotional stress.

Orion just looked at the now broken pencil he was holding, he was use to this, one of the side effects of his semblance, something he usually was able to compensate for, usually. Ever since he had joined Team SNOW, ever since he had been paired with Weiss Schnee, this accident, something that would happen once every few weeks, was now a weekly occurrence, and it was testing his patience. But right now, this had to be the worst, exam week put everyone under a lot of stress, he was use to slightly higher levels of stress during this time, his semblance casually drained off the excess emotional stress from his friends, the price was him just having to be more careful with everything. This was ridiculous though, Orion had quickly learned that Weiss Schnee was the living definition of tightly wound. She seemed to be in a constant state of higher than average stress, and it was driving Orion nuts. So here they were, studying, with Orion breaking yet another pencil.  
Glaring at Weiss, he decided that they needed to talk about this, “Do you mind,” he whispered, clearly annoyed, but not wanting disturb the others studying.  
Weiss just looked at him, “What do you mean?”  
“That’s the fourth pencil I’ve broken in the last hour, sixth today, twelfth this week,” Orion stated.  
“Your point,” asked Weiss.  
“My point is that we both know how my semblance works, and with how much emotional stress I’ve absorbed from you, I might as well try learning Professor Goodwitch’s semblance because if I hold anything to write I will snap it like a fucking twig.”  
“And why can’t you just turn it off,” asked Weiss, something she had always wondered, but never bothered asking.  
“Because it’s not that simple,” responded Orion, “Some of us can’t just turn off our semblances. I’ve gotten to the point where I can slow the drain, but I can’t stop it right now, so when you do this, you get stressed over whatever all because someone taught you the only way to live is to be a perfectionist, it’s not enough,” Orion just threw his hands up, “I’m done, I got to go work this off, otherwise I’m going to break my bed tonight.”  
As Orion stomped off, Weiss was left wondering what to do, she didn’t feel like she needed to apologize, but it was her stress that always caused this, so she was left to her thoughts as she continued to study.

* * *

 

Orion made sure he knocked before entered the dorm he shared with the rest of his team. Any outsider might find this weird, but it wasn’t because he was looking for permission to enter, it was a warning that he was coming in. He and Weiss had found out the extent of Samantha and Natalia’s relationship, two weeks into the school year, Orion and his partner had come back from a study session, talking about the topic they had been studying, they didn’t hear the moans coming from the other side of the door, and had opened the door to their collective dorm to their two other teammates in quite a compromising position. The lengthy and really awkward discussion afterwards caused Orion to learn some interesting things about his two other teammates, such as the fact that Samantha was a bottom, something he never needed to know, but learned it anyways. The only major change was that if he were to enter the dorm and knew Samantha and Natalia were both in the room, he had to knock, the rule applied to Weiss as well, and technically applied to Samantha and Natalia for the other half for their team, but Orion actually fell over laughing when the suggestion was made. It was less to ask for permission, and more to make sure the pair knew others were coming in, so that situation wouldn't happen again.  
As Orion entered, he stated his purpose, “Just changing into something more comfortable, going to the gym for a bit.” He didn’t even bothering to look at Samantha and Natalia, probably for the best considering the former was topless, pinned under her scarlet haired lover, who had been in the process of some very naughty business when they heard Orion knock.  
“Weren’t you studying with Weiss,” asked Samantha, clearly still out breath from whatever had been happening earlier.  
“Twelve,” Orion stated, continuing before either girl could say anything, “Twelve pencils, in a week. I literally can’t work around her when she’s like that. I just break everything,” gesturing to his drawer, which he had almost effortlessly pulled fully out of its holder, “I can’t believe how stressed she gets, I don’t know what is eating her, but for fuck sake, I wish she would talk to us about it, at least one of us could help if she would just let us.”  
“Remember,” Natalia commented, “She’s the heiress of the Schnee Dust Company, she has a lot to live up to, it may just be that and we can’t truly help her with that.”  
“Bull,” retorted Orion, “Samantha, you’re the heiress to White Enterprises, you aren’t even a quarter as stressed Weiss.”  
“But I have someone to calm me down,” Samantha said, kissing her girlfriend on the cheek.  
“So your recommendation is finding Weiss someone that loves her and she loves them back,” Orion asked sarcastically, “I’m already imagining the ways that could go wrong.”  
Orion could almost hear the eye roll from his team leader as she spoke, “No, I’m saying that you should find a way to help her calm down, my recommendation would be a back massage, she seemed to enjoy the one you gave to her as an apology after the first day.”  
“I’ll consider it,” Orion responded, accidently slamming the drawer he was using, “Let me work off this excess power, then I’ll consider it.”

* * *

 

Once Orion was changed, a tank top and athletic shorts now his outfit, he headed for the gym. Once he arrived, he took to one of the weight benches and loaded it up with as much as he could, wanting to test himself right now.  
“Do you require a spotter,” asked someone as Orion loaded up the last of the weights, turning around he found himself face to chest with Yatsuhashi, the seven foot behemoth was the only person at the school taller than Orion, which he found a little annoying as he wasn’t use to looking up at people.  
“I guess,” Orion shrugged, “Just trying to make the best of a bad situation.”  
Orion watched Fox sign something, he really wish he had taken Leonard’s advice while they were at Signal and taken those MSL classes.  
“He does realize there are maybe three people at most in the school who can understand him,” Orion asked Yatsuhashi.  
Yatsuhashi sighed, translating the signs for Orion, “He asked if Schnee was doing ‘the thing’ again.”  
“If that’s the subtle way for asking if she’s stressed,” Orion grunted, lifting the bar up all the way, “She’s always stressed, exam week just makes it worse than usual,” at that moment, he noticed he was squeezing the bar so hard it was molding to his grip, “way worse,” he added, seeing the side effects.  
Yatsuhashi raised an eyebrow as he saw the damage done, “Have you tried finding other ways to help,” he asked.  
“Samantha suggested a massage for her,” Orion said, “But at the moment, I might break her instead.”

* * *

 

 

After a couple of hours of very intense training and a discussion of how they were going to explain what happened to the bar Orion ‘broke’ to Professor Ozpin, the three boys sat on a spare mat, chugging water, when a certain topic of discussion walked up.  
“Hey Schnee,” Orion commented, not bothering to look her in the eyes, still annoyed at her for earlier, but noticing the lack of stress that usually rolled off the short girl.  
Yatsuhashi and Fox stared at each other, Fox signed something, leaving Yatsuhashi with a simple response, “We should go,” and like that, the two were gone, leaving Orion and Weiss the only two in the room.  
“Did Samantha tell you I was here,” asked Orion, still staring at the ceiling.  
“No,” responded Weiss, “This is where you’ve gone the last two days.”  
“Alright,” Orion responded, finally making eye contact with the heiress, he asked the obvious question, “What do you want?”  
“I wanted to apologize,” she muttered, just loud enough for Orion to hear her, almost causing him to choke on his water.  
“For what,” Orion coughed, “It’s not like you can control the fact that you have a legacy to live up to.”  
Weiss shot him a glare before sighing, “My father pushed me very hard while I was in Atlas,” she said, “Everything I did was never good enough unless it was done perfectly, after a while I just pushed myself to my absolute limits, because anything less was failure.”  
Orion just looked at her, before standing up and putting a hand on her shoulder, “Alright,” he sighed, resigning himself to this problem, “Then I’ll work harder on making it so I don’t constantly drain emotional energy, so we have less days like this. In the meantime, I did talk to Samantha and Natalia, if you’re willing, I’ll give you another back massage.”  
Weiss pretended to consider it as they walked back to the dorm, but her mind was already made up, she loved the last massage Orion gave her, the feeling of his hands on her bare skin had almost caused her to get a little too into it last time, but it was a feeling she wanted again.  
Halfway back to the dorm, she touched Orion on the shoulder, answering the question as he looked at her, “I think that is something I can do.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know that chapter was shorter than usual, but that's kind of the point. Just a simple chapter getting into Team SNOW, with some naughtiness and fluff to lighten the mood. Also, the 'scene' with Samantha and Natalia, there's a 50/50 that a series of stuff like that might pop in the future. As for now, the next two chapters and maybe an epilogue will be done by the end of the month, so we can start getting asks on the blog and I don't have to feel awkward about it just sitting there.


	13. Chapter 12: Stray

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Leonard takes his team to meet Samuel, they meet Team SNOW at the docks and a secret that no one expected is revealed.

Team SNOW headed down to the docks, Weiss in the lead, excited about their little excursion. As they walked down, Orion saw old Mr. Riku helping to hang a sign across the street that said ‘Welcome to Vale’, there seemed to be more people than usual downtown, and they all knew why.  
“The Vytal Festival,” Weiss exclaimed happily, “Oh, this is absolutely wonderful!”  
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you smile this much Weiss,” pointed out Samantha, “It’s actually kind of weird.”  
“How could you _not_ smile,” Weiss proclaimed, “A festival dedicated to the cultures of the world! There will be dances, parades, and a tournament! Oh, the amount of planning and organization that goes into this event is simply breath taking!”  
Orion resisted the urge to face-palm, “Weiss, you really know how to take a good thing and make it sound boring,” he quipped.  
“Quiet you,” she snapped back, not wanting to take it from her partner today, especially after last week.  
To the sound of a boat horn sounding off, Orion asked the question that was on everyone else’s mind, “Remind me again, why we’re spending our first free day in several months visiting the docks,” he paused, sniffing the air unintentionally, “Gah, they smell so bad,” he commented.  
“I’ve heard that students visiting from Vacuo will be arriving by ship today,” Weiss announced, “And as a representative of Beacon, I feel like it’s my solemn duty to welcome to this fine kingdom.”  
Before anyone could make a comment, they heard a monotonous voice do it for them, “Translation, she wants to spy on them so she’ll have the upper hand in the tournament.”  
Team BLZE walked up, Blake Belladonna’s raven mane flowing behind her, followed by her three teammates.  
“You can’t prove that,” shouted Weiss as they walked up.  
Zinnea just laughed, “Schnee, you’re a creature of habit, probably for the best though.”  
Orion was surprised to see his friends down here, “Leonard, I didn’t think you’d be down here today.”  
“We were on our way to introduce Blake and Zinnea to Samuel, but Elizabeth did an ammo check and realized she was low on 95 rounds, so thought we could stop by the…oh,” Leonard was jolly, but turning down the street, his words trailed off, everyone looked to see a depressing sight, the shop Leonard was heading to was in ruins, From Dust Till Dawn, the windows shattered, yellow police tape everywhere.  
“What happened here,” asked Leonard, unable on how to feel about the sight in front of him.  
“Robbery,” the detective responded, “Second Dust shop this week, twelfth of this freaking crime spree. This place is turning into a jungle.”  
“This is ridiculous,” muttered Orion.  
From the store, the second detective said something that caught Leonard’s attention, “They left all the money again.”  
“Yeah, just doesn’t make a lick of sense,” the first detective responded, “Who needs that much Dust?”  
“I dunno,” the other detective responded, “You know what I mean?”  
“You thinking the White Fang,” asked the first.  
“Yea, I don’t think we get paid enough,” responded the second.

* * *

 

On the other side of the tape, they all had been listening to the conversation, and the comment about the Fang had set everyone on alert.  
“The White Fang,” Weiss said, disgusted, “What an awful bunch of degenerates.”  
“What’s your problem,” asked Blake, responding before even Zinnea.  
“My problem,” snapped Weiss, “I simply don’t care for the criminally insane.”  
“The White Fang is hardly a bunch of psychopaths,” retorted Blake, “They’re a collection of misguided Faunas.”  
“Misguided,” barked Weiss, “They want to wipe humanity off the face of the planet!”  
“So then they’re _very_ misguided,” snapped Blake, before letting herself calm a bit, returning to the scene in front of them, “Either way, it doesn’t explain why they would rob a Dust shop in the middle of downtown Vale."  
"Blake does have a point,” responded Samantha, trying to defuse the situation.  
“Besides, the police never caught Torchwick for any of the Dust robberies he committed,” Leonard added, “That includes the one Elizabeth and I stopped here. It could have easily been him.”  
Weiss crossed her arms and scoffed, “That still doesn’t change the fact that the White Fang are a bunch of scum. Those Faunas only know how to lie, cheat, and steal.”  
“That’s not necessarily true,” responded Zinnea, who was about done with Weiss’s tirade.

* * *

 

All of the sudden, a voice sounded from the docks, causing all eight of them to run back down the street, towards the docks.  
“Hey,” shouted a sailor, “Stop that Faunas.”  
Running across the deck of the boat was a blonde monkey Faunas, his tail flicking behind him as he ran.  
Leaping off the boat he shouted back at the two sailors chasing him, “Thanks for the ride, guys!”  
“You no-good stowaway,” one of the sailors shouted.  
Hanging from a lamp on the docks, the Faunas opened a banana and started to eat, “A ‘no-good’ stowaway would have been caught,” he countered, “I’m a great stowaway.”  
He dodged a rock as the two detective from the crime scene strode up, “Get down from there this instant,” one of them threatened.  
Instead, the Faunas threw down the peel of his banana and sprinted past them. In an instant he was up the stairs and tearing down the street and straight past the eight, standing there like idiots as he ran by. The most surprising thing was something Elizabeth caught out of the corner of her eye, it happened so quickly she thought she had imagined it, the monkey Faunas had winked at Blake and Zinnea. The blush on Blake’s face made it all real, Elizabeth was stunned, mostly because she couldn’t tell who that wink had been aimed at.  
“Well Weiss,” Orion said, interrupting Elizabeth’s thoughts, “You wanted to see the competition. Well, there it goes.”  
“Quick,” Weiss shouted, running off after the monkey Faunas, “We have to observe him.”

The eight ran off after the mischievous Faunas, with Blake and Zinnea bringing up the rear, both trying to shake off the emotions they felt in that moment. Chasing the police down several alleys and side streets, the chase ‘ended’ when Weiss turned a corner and smacked right into someone.  
Looking up she saw the Faunas and cops turn a corner, “No! He got away,” she cried.  
Everyone else was currently staring at the redhead woman that Weiss was currently laying on top of.  
“Uh, Weiss,” Orion started to say, gesturing to the person the platinum blonde was currently lying over.  
Weiss jumped back, slightly freaked by the person she had been almost pinning to the ground. The ginger didn’t seem embarrassed at all, which was a little weird by everyone’s standards.  
“Salutations,” the young woman happily chirped, unfazed by what had just occurred.  
“Uh…hello,” Leonard replied, being who he was, he was use to the occasional oddity, but she might end up taking the cake.  
“Are you okay,” asked Orion, as the girl was still lying on the floor.  
“I’m wonderful,” replied the girl, still prone on the ground, “Thank you for asking.”  
The eight just looked at each other, just stunned by this girl.  
“Do you need help getting up,” asked Orion.  
“No assistance required,” replied before springing herself into a fully upright position, “Thank you for the offer, though.”  
She was about the same height as Leonard, meaning as usual, Weiss was the short one in the group.  
“My name is Penny,” the girl introduced herself, “It is a pleasure to meet you!”  
The group introduced themselves, Zinnea being the last to introduce herself, asked if she had hit her head, before receiving a swift elbow in the side from Blake.  
“It is a please to meet you,” Penny repeated.  
“You already said that,” pointed out Weiss.  
Penny paused, Leonard could swear he could see gears turning in her head, “So I did,” she responded after a couple seconds of thinking.   
“Anyway,” Weiss said, hoping to move the conversation along, “Sorry for running into you.”  
“So long, friend,” Elizabeth called out as they left, not realizing how much trouble that phrase was about to bring them.  
“She was…weird,” commented Orion, trying to find an easier way to describe Penny, but could find nothing.  
“Now,” Weiss said, looking around for the real reason they had that accident in the first place, “Where did that Faunas riffraff run off to.”  
Before they could continue the ‘search’, a familiar red-head was in their way.  
“What did you just call me,” Penny asked, eyes focusing in on Elizabeth.  
Orion started to apologize as nearly everyone else was question on how Penny had gotten in front of them without anyone noticing, Weiss herself in complete confusion, constantly looking behind the group with the most ridiculous expression on her face.  
Penny pushed past both of them, walking up Elizabeth, Leonard went to grab Penny, not wishing this stranger to get this close to her, but stopped when Elizabeth just glanced at him.  
“You called me ‘friend’,” Penny stated, before asking the accompanying question, “Am I really your friend?”  
Elizabeth glanced past Penny to everyone else, all of Team SNOW were confused by what just happened, Blake and Zinnea were making 'no' motions, and Leonard looked entirely indifferent on the matter, the cute, little shrug he made basically saying that it was her choice, he’d back her up on it.  
“Sure,” Elizabeth said, a small smile on her face, “Why not?”  
Blake and Zinnea just looked at Leonard, he just rolled his eyes at their stunned faces, with a small chuckle escaping his lips, remembering how he’s always had a habit of attracting the strange ones.  
“Sen-sational,” Penny cried out, very delighted with Elizabeth’s answer, “We can paint our nails, and try on clothes, and talk about cute boys!”  
“I wasn’t this bad when we first met, was I,” asked Orion.  
“No,” Weiss calmly retorted, “You were far less energetic and far more annoying.”  
“So, what are you doing in Vale,” asked Zinnea, desperate to move this conversation along.  
“I’m here for the tournament,” proudly stated Penny.  
Everyone was a little shocked, “You’re fighting in the tournament,” said Weiss questioningly, not sure if the red-head was joking or not.  
“Yep,” Penny chirped, performing a quick salute, “The General says I’m combat ready!”  
“The General,” asked Natalia.  
“She probably means Ironwood,” Samantha whispered to her girlfriend, “He’s the headmaster of the Atlas Academy, and the top officer of their military.”  
“Forgive me, but you hardly look the part,” commented Weiss.  
“Coming from the girl who fights in a dress,” replied Blake.  
“It’s a ‘combat skirt’,” Weiss shot back, instantly Samantha and Natalia were behind her, giving her a high-five in solidarity.  
“Wait,” Weiss said, putting two and two together, “If you’re here for the tournament, does that mean you know that monkey-tailed rapscallion?”  
“The who,” asked Penny.  
“The filthy Faunas from the boat,” Weiss continued, holding up a very crudely drawn picture of said Faunas.  
At this point, Blake was back to being enraged, “Why do you keep saying that,” she asked Weiss accusingly.  
Weiss just looked at Blake as she continued, “Stop calling him a rapscallion,” she shouted, “Stop calling him a degenerate! He’s a person!”  
“Oh, I’m sorry,” said Weiss, clearly not sorry, “Would you like me to stop referring to this trashcan as a trashcan or this lamppost as a lamppost?”  
“Stop it,” growled Blake.  
“Stop what,” asked Weiss, before pointing out the other thing, “He clearly broke the law. Give him time, he’ll probably join up with those other Faunas in the White Fang.”  
“You ignorant little brat,” spat Blake.  
“How dare you talk to me like that,” Weiss shouted at Blake as she started to walk away, “I may not be your teammate, but we’re both at Beacon, you could at least treat with a little respect.”  
“You’re a judgmental, little girl,” retorted Blake, “Being a huntress in training doesn’t change that.”  
“What in the world makes you say that,” Weiss shot back.  
“Uhh, shouldn’t we separate them,” asked Orion.  
“Why,” asked Penny.  
Elizabeth turned to Penny, the pain in her eyes evident to even the densest of people, “Penny, I know you probably want to help, but this is a more personal matter.”  
Penny just nodded, leaving the two teams to try and settle their dispute.  
Blake continued her argument, “The mere fact that you sort that Faunas Boy with the terrorist group solely based on his species makes you just as much of a scoundrel as you believe him to be.”  
“So you admit it,” Weiss retorted, “The White Fang _is_ just a radical group of terrorists.”  
“That’s not what you meant, and you know it,” countered Blake.  
“I don’t understand why this is causing such a problem,” responded Weiss.  
“That _is_ the problem,” shouted Blake. Leonard was personally glad this was happening on a side street and not closer to the crime scene, as this shouting match would’ve drawn a crowd by now.  
“You do realize you’re supporting an organization that hates humanity,” Weiss pointed out, “The Faunas of the White Fang are pure evil.”  
“There’s no such thing as pure evil,” Blake retorted loudly, “Why do you think they hate humanity so much? It’s because of people like Cardin, people like _you_ , that force the White Fang to take such drastic measures!”  
“People like me,” Weiss asked, both surprised and angry.  
“You’re discriminatory,” shouted Blake.  
“I’m a victim,” screamed Weiss.  
In that instant everyone paused, not sure how to take that, but Weiss continued, “You want to know _why_ I despise the White Fang. Why I don’t particularly trust the Faunas. It’s because they’ve been at war with my family for years. War; as in actual bloodshed. My grandfather’s company has had a target painted on its back for as long as I can remember. And ever since I was a child, I’ve watched family friends disappear, board members executed, an entire train car of Dust, stolen,” Blake looked a little guilty for a second, but Weiss continued, “And every day, my father would come home furious, and that made for a very difficult childhood.”  
Orion walked up to Weiss, putting his hand on her shoulder, “Weiss, I-“  
“No,” Weiss shouted, knocking Orion’s hand away as she locked her eyes with Blake’s, “You want to know why I despise the White Fang. It’s because they’re a bunch of liars, thieves, and murderers!”  
And with that, Blake well and truly snapped, unleashing a sentence no one was expecting, “Well maybe we were tired of being pushed around!”  
Weiss was taken aback by the sudden outburst, Blake’s expression turning from anger to fear as she realized what she said. Before anyone could react, she was gone, disappearing down a small alley as her partner called out for her.  
“Blake,” Zinnea shouted, “Wait; come back!”  
Everyone else just turned to Weiss, whose expression was back to the anger she had shown earlier.  
Zinnea was furious, “Weiss, while that was quite the revelation, fuck you.”  
Weiss was taken aback again, “What?!”  
“You heard me _Ice Queen_ ,” Zinnea said the nickname in disgust, “You truly are a spoiled little brat. Look, I’m not denying that dealing with an angry father was every kid’s worse nightmare, but you don’t have the fucking right to claim that you’re a victim.”  
Weiss was stunned, not sure what to make of this fury coming from the dragon Faunas statement, or the venom in every word.  
“The tragedy you experienced may not be on your hands personally, but your family has more blood on its hands than most, your father has been nothing but a monster to the Faunas, so while I don’t agree with the Fang’s methods, it’s not like they don’t have a good reason. If the Fang are a gang of liars, thieves, and murderers, then your Father is a fucking Grimm in sheep’s clothing, a heartless monster.”  
Zinnea spat on the ground before turning away from Weiss, spreading her wings, she said one last thing before soaring into the sky, “I’m going to search for Blake. If any of you want to pick your jaws up off the ground, you’re welcome to help.”

 

* * *

 

_Two hours later_

Blake found herself panting, she had ran all the way back to Beacon, now standing in front of the statue in front of the school; she just stared at it. She never did find herself relating to either heroes in the statue, but to the Grimm underfoot, all her life she just wanted the Faunas to be equal, but at every turn, they were trampled underfoot, by ‘heroes’ refusing to shed tears, she instead looked around, making sure no one could see what she was about to do. Once sure no one was around, she removed her bow, revealing the pair of cat ears that hid beneath.  
Behind her she heard a voice she barely recognized, “I knew you’d look better without the bow.”

An hour later, Blake found herself at a café on the far side of town, the monkey Faunas from earlier in the day staring her down.  
Taking a deep breath, she decided to go through with this now, “So,” she said, monotone as ever, “You want to know more about me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So damn, that was a lot more fun to write, also Zinnea spit that venom at Weiss, dust damn.


	14. Chapter 13: Fire and Ice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The search for Blake continues, leaving her to confront her past and what the group she once loved has become.

At a café downtown, Sun Wukong was actually surprised to hear the girl he had been trying to have a conversation with for the past hour finally speak, “And she can talk,” he exclaimed, “About time, so far you’ve given me nothing but weird looks,” Blake made a face of annoyance at that comment, “Like that,” Sun said in response to the look.  
“Sun,” Blake started, asking the question she needed to start with in order to truly say anything, “Are you familiar with the White Fang?”  
“Of course,” he responded, “I don’t think there is a Faunas on this planet who hasn’t heard of them. Stupid, holier-than-thou creeps that use force to get whatever they want. Bunch of freaks if you ask me.”  
Blake finished the sip she was taking before admitting the truth, the part she had been so nervous to tell her team, “I was once a member of the White Fang.”  
Sun nearly choked on his drink, “Wait a minute,” he coughed, “ _You_ were a member of the White Fang?”  
“That’s right,” Blake started, going into the basic summary of her life, “I was a member for most of my life. You could almost say I was born into it. Back then, things were different; in the ashes of war, the White Fang was meant to be a symbol of peace and unity between humans and Faunas. Despite being promised equality, the Faunas were subjected to discrimination and hate. Humanity still thought of us as lesser beings. And so, the White Fang rose up as a vice of our people. And I was there, I was at the front of every rally. I took part in every boycott. And I actually thought we were making a difference, but I was just a youthful optimist. Then, five years ago, our leader stepped down, and a new one took his place. A new leader with a new way of thinking. Suddenly our peaceful protests were being replaced with organized attacks. We were setting fire to shops that refused to serve us, hijacking cargo from companies that used Faunas labor, and worse. The worst part was that it was working, we were being treated like equals, but not out of respect, out of fear,” she paused, putting down her drink and looking into it before continuing, “So I left, I decided I no longer wanted to use my skills to aid in their violence. Instead, I would dedicate my life to becoming a Huntress. So here I am, a criminal hiding in plain view, all with the help of a little, black bow,” she wiggled her ears under her bow for emphasis.  
“So,” Sun said, asking the obvious question, “Have you told your friends any of this?”

* * *

 

Leonard was currently on the phone, trying to get in contact with Samuel. He needed to tell him that he wasn’t going to be able to make it today.  
On the fifth ring an obviously exasperated Samuel picked up, “What,” he shouted over the phone.  
Leonard took a deep breath for speaking, “Hey Samuel, just needed to let you know that something came up. We’re not going make it today.”  
“Alright,” Samuel sighed, before shouting at someone else, “No, get away from that! No, you can’t talk to him! Because he’s going to be here soon, look you two, just calm down before I get Mizayaki to talk some sense into you two.”  
“Everything good over there,” asked Leonard, confused at who Samuel was yelling at.  
“No,” Samuel responded, “We got these ‘kids’ recently, and they are driving me up the wall, Miza’s good at wrangling them, but when they heard that you were coming over this weekend, they got super excited, something about wanting to meet new people.”  
“Alright,” Leonard said, not sure how to respond this, Samuel always talked about how he didn’t want kids until he was at least 25, so them adopting kids seemed very out of the blue, “Look, we’ll be there tomorrow. We’re just dealing with some stuff.”  
“Does it involve your team leader,” Samuel asked.  
“Yes,” Leonard answered, then realized what was asked, “Wait, how do you know about that.”  
“I do my research,” replied Samuel.  
“Did you seriously do research into my team,” Leonard asked accusingly.  
“Yes,” Samuel admitted, “but for good reason. I’ll explain tomorrow.”  
Leonard sighed, “Alright, see you tomorrow.”  
“Wait,” Samuel said quickly before Leonard hung up, “You want something to beat the crap out of.”  
“Depends,” Leonard responded, curious about the offer, he did want to beat a certain someone in for the attack on the dust shop from this morning.  
“Well, there’s a huge Dust shipment coming in today, if Roman’s been pulling off these robberies, then that’s his next target,” Samuel said, reading off some report he had on his computer.  
“We’ll try to do that,” Leonard replied, “Teammate situation comes first though, thanks Church, see you tomorrow.”

 

As Leonard hung up, he turned back to Elizabeth and Team SNOW, who for the most part were looking for Leonard’s missing team leader.  
“Blake,” Elizabeth called out, followed shortly by Orion, “Blake.”  
“Blake,” Leonard shouted, “Where are you?!”  
Noticing that one person was not helping, the other four turned to look at her, Orion pointed this out to his partner, “Weiss,” his tone filled with annoyance, “You’re not helping.”  
“Oh! You know who might be able to help. The police,” she responded, everyone else just looked at her in annoyance.  
“Weiss,” Natalia growled.  
“What,” she asked, defensively, “It was only a suggestion.”  
“Yeah,” Leonard scoffed, “A bad one.”  
“Weiss,” Orion said, trying to calm both of them down as they continued to walk through the town, “I think we should hear her side of the story before we jump to any conclusions.”  
“I think when we hear it, you’ll realize I was right,” Weiss proclaimed.  
“And I think you all look wonderful,” a voice behind the group exclaimed.  
Turning around, the five saw a familiar red head who had been with them at the start of their chaotic day.  
“Penny,” Elizabeth screamed in surprise, “Where did you come from?!”  
“You seemed to be searching for something,” Penny stated, “I wanted to see if I could be of assistance.”  
“Someone,” Leonard corrected, “We’re trying to find our friend Blake.”  
“Oh, you mean the Faunas girl,” Penny said.  
Everyone just stared at her, surprised by the statement.  
“You weren’t there, how did you figure it out,” Elizabeth asked.  
“The cat ears,” stated Penny.  
“Blake doesn’t have cat ears,” Leonard started, his words trailing off as he finished the thought, “she wears a bow…”  
He and Elizabeth just looked at each other, “We probably should have realized that sooner,” he whispered, Elizabeth just nodded.  
“So where is she,” asked Penny once the awkward silence passed.  
“We don’t know,” answered Elizabeth, “The argument she and Weiss were having when you left escalated and she ran off.”  
“That’s terrible,” exclaimed Penny, who walked up and firmly grabbed Elizabeth by her shoulders, “Well don’t worry Elizabeth, my friend! I won’t rest until we find your teammate!”  
“That’s really nice of you Penny,” Elizabeth nervously laughed, “But I think we’re good. Right guys,”  
looking over Penny’s shoulder, she saw that Team SNOW was gone, and Zinnea was still looking for Blake somewhere. She just grumbled as Penny and Leonard followed her in search of Blake.

 

* * *

 

_Elsewhere in Vale_

Blake and Sun wandered through town, Sun was enjoying spending time with the cat Faunas, but he knew where today was most likely going, so he asked the obvious question, “So, what’s the plan now?”  
“I still don’t think the White Fang is behind the robberies,” Blake said, “They’ve never needed that much Dust before.”  
“What if they did,” questioned Sun, before going into his theory to find out the truth, “I mean, the only way to prove that they didn’t do it, is to go to the place they would most likely go to if they were to do it, and not find them there, right?”  
Blake nodded, it made sense, but there was one problem, “The only thing is, I have no idea where that would be.”  
Sun had the solution for that problem too, “When I was on the ship, I heard some guys talking about offloading a _huge_ shipment of Dust coming in from Atlas.”  
Blake asked the obvious question, “How huge?”  
“ _Huge_ ,” said Sun, spreading his arms wide for emphasis, “Big Schnee Company freighter.”  
“You’re sure,” asked Blake.  
“Positive,” replied Sun.

 

* * *

 

Weiss and Orion exited another store, still unsuccessful in finding Blake.  
“Thanks, anyways,” Orion called out to the shopkeeper before leaving.  
“This is hopeless,” scoffed Weiss.  
“You really don’t care if we find her,” Orion asked accusingly.  
“Don’t be stupid,” retorted Weiss, “Of course I do. I’m just afraid with what she’ll say when we find her,” she walked off before turning back to Orion, “The innocent never run Orion.”  
“Maybe if they’re human,” Zinnea said, landing next to Weiss, causing the heiress to shriek in surprise.  
“Find anything,” asked Orion.  
“Just the reason why you guys split up,” Zinnea responded, “Didn’t think we’d see Penny again today.”  
Orion just sighed as Zinnea took off again, saying she was going to have another look around town.

 

* * *

 

“So, Blake is your friend,” asked Penny.  
“Yes,” sighed Elizabeth.  
“Team leader to be specific,” added Leonard.  
“But you’re mad at her,” Penny asked, obviously curious.  
“We’re not,” Elizabeth stated, “Weiss is.”  
“Is she friends with Blake,” Penny continued to ask these questions, Elizabeth knew she was curious, but it still got annoying having to explain this.  
“That’s still up in the air at the moment,” Elizabeth replied.  
“Why?”  
“Well, we found out that Blake’s not who we thought she was, but you already figured it out, at least part of it.”  
“Is she actually a man,” Penny whispered.  
Elizabeth and Leonard just looked at each other, Leonard letting out a bone deep sigh as Elizabeth answered the ridiculous question, “I highly doubt that, but we’re not sure what exactly she’s hiding. She kind of ran off before we could say anything.”  
“I don’t have a lot of friends,” Penny started, Leonard forced himself to keep quiet on the sarcastic comment as she continued, “but if I did, I would want them to talk to me about things, just so things like this don’t happen.”  
Elizabeth and Leonard just nodded, knowing they had kept secrets too, and something similar had almost happen on their first night as a team.

 

* * *

 

_Later that evening_

 It was about 9 pm and Blake found herself down by the docks with Sun, the monkey Faunas had disappeared to do something, Blake wasn’t sure what, but she didn’t really care, she was too busy watching the dockyard below, if the Fang were responsible for the robberies, they would be here.  
“Did I miss anything,” asked Sun, Blake turned to see the monkey Faunas squat down next to her, in his arms he held something.  
“Not really,” Blake said, giving him the rundown of the current situation, “They’ve offloaded all the crates from the boat. Now they’re just sitting there.”  
“Cool,” Sun said, offering Blake an apple, “I stole you some food.”  
“Do you always break the law without a second thought,” Blake asked.  
“Weren’t you in a cult or something,” Sun retorted.  
The glare Blake gave him shut him up, but before she could say anything, the wind and sound of turbine engines. Spotlights from a Bullhead craft moved around, looking to see if anyone was waiting for the incoming craft. As it landed, the engines slowly powered down, the noise and wind dissipating as it did. Suddenly a gangplank extended from the ship and a person walked out. They were decked out in some form of armored outfit, the black hood and sleeves extended from a gray-ish vest with a red symbol on the back, the symbol was the head of a Beowolf, with three thin slash marks behind it.  
“Oh no,” Blake whispered, recognizing the insignia of the intruders instantly.  
“Is that them,” Sun asked, not sure if it was them.  
“It’s them,” Blake sighed in defeat, her ears picking up the voice of one of the members ordering the others to grab the tow cables.  
“You really didn’t think they were behind it, did you,” Sun asked, the concern for her was genuine.  
“No,” Blake replied solemnly, “I think deep down I knew. I just didn’t want to be right.”  
Suddenly a voice sounded out, one Blake didn’t recognize, “What’s the hold up,” the voice shouted.  
Out of the Bullhead stepped a person she did recognize, and her anger flared seeing who this _human_ was.  
“We’re not exactly the most inconspicuous bunch of thieves at the moment,” Roman Torchwick shouted, trying to get this heist to go as quickly as possible, “So, why don’t you animals pick up the pace.”  
“This isn’t right,” Blake said, not knowing what to make of the situation, “The White Fang would never work with a human. Especially not one like that.” She pulled out the blade of Gambol Shroud, prepared to kill Torchwick.  
“What are you doing,” Sun said, raising his voice in slight panic as Blake leapt off the side of the building they were on to go after the human.  
Blake moved through the shipyard like a shadow, she made her way from crate to crate like she was trained for this, which she was, she had been a scout, spy, and thief while she was in the Fang. This was her environment.  
She now found herself within earshot of Torchwick, now she just had to wait for an opportunity to strike, “No you idiot,” Torchwick said, belittling the White Fang member holding a portion of cable, “This isn’t a leash.”  
Blake wanted to wait, but that was the last straw. In a second she was behind Torchwick, her blade of his throat.  
“What the,” started Torchwick, before he realized his situation, “Oh for the love of…”  
“Nobody move,” shouted Blake, as White Fang members started aiming guns and leveling swords at her.  
“Whoa,” said Torchwick, almost taunting his captor as he spoke, “Take it easy there little lady.”  
As the rest of the Fang with Torchwick surrounded her, she pulled off her bow, revealing her cat ears to the fellow Faunas in front of her.  
“Brothers of the White Fang,” Blake spoke with all the authority she could muster, after everything she had done as part of the Fang, she had learned to do this when necessary, even if she still didn’t like doing it to her team now, “Why are you aiding this scum?”  
The White Fang members lowered their weapons, they had all asked the same question, but orders were orders, they had to put up with this redheaded asshole for now.  
Torchwick chuckled, “Oh kid, didn’t you get the memo?”  
“What are you talking about,” barked Blake, needing to know the truth.  
“The White Fang and I are going in on a joint business venture together,” replied Torchwick.  
“Tell me what it is or I’ll put an end to your little operation,” threatened Blake, putting her sword closer to Torchwick.  
On that note, Blake heard more turbines, “I wouldn’t exactly call it a little operation,” Roman said as two more Bullheads passed over them, the distraction being enough for Torchwick to fire his weapon into the ground. The blast caught Blake off guard, sending her flying away from Torchwick.

 

* * *

 

_Nearby_

Leonard, Elizabeth, and Penny looked up to the sound of an explosion. Black smoke billowed from the docks, which was in the direction of where they were headed.  
“That can’t be good,” commented Leonard as the three ran for the docks, hoping to stop whatever was going down.

 

* * *

 

Blake struggled to get up, all four ears still ringing from the explosion that had gone off at her feet. She barely had time to react as Roman Torchwick fired the gun in his cane, each shot sending a blast of aura and fire dust. Blake dodged each shot as quickly as she could, each one creating a small explosion on impact, she was forced to use her semblance in order to dodged the tail end of the barrage before disappearing behind a nearby container.  
“Here, kitty, kitty, kitty,” called Torchwick, before having a banana dropped his head. Growling, Torchwick looked up to see a monkey Faunas jump down from some nearby crates and land straight on his head.  
As Sun rolled away from Torchwick he said something to get his attention, “Leave her alone.”  
The two Bullheads from earlier had finally landed, out of them spewed more White Fang members, armed with blades and firearms, they quickly surrounded Sun, weapons aimed at the blonde Faunas.  
“You are not the brightest banana in the bunch, are you kid,” taunted Torchwick, thinking he had the advantage.  
Sun just smirked as the goons rushed him, beating the first few down with punches and kicks before breaking out his weapon, Ruyi Jingu, the bo staff deflected shots and blows as he knocked aside goon after goon, sending the last one flying towards Torchwick, who fired a single blast, which Sun blocked easily.  
“He’s mine,” shouted Blake as she rushed Torchwick, Shroud’s blade and bladed sheath clanged against Roman’s cane, the simple stick surprisingly durable as they traded blows, Blake’s semblance allowing her to dodge most of Roman’s blows until he catches one of her hands in the ‘hook’ of his cane, throwing her off balance and knocking her aside. Before Torchwick could land any further blows, Sun leapt in, putting Roman back on the defensive, the blonde’s staff now a pair of nunchaku, each piece now a small shotgun, Sun pummeled Roman, firing shot after shot, the small space between them now an explosion of aura and dust shots, the last blow was followed up by Blake, who’s slash sent Roman flying back. As Torchwick got back up, he spotted a crate hanging above the two Faunas who were kicking his ass. Firing a shot at the cables holding up the crate, he sent it tumbling down, separating Blake and Sun as they dived to opposite sides. As Sun went to get up, he found himself staring down the barrel of Torchwick’s weapon. Before he could fire, the sound of a cannon echoed through the shipyard, a shot nearly knocked the cane from Torchwick’s hands, sending him stumbling to the side. Looking up he saw _them_ the two kids who ruined his heist nearly four months ago, the girl had her rifle lined up, the barrel pointing towards him, the boy stood there defiantly, gauntlets a glistening black.  
“Meddling brats,” Torchwick shouted in rage, “Don’t you have anything better to do?”

Up on the roof, Penny had watched Leonard and Elizabeth get into position, but upon hearing the man they had fired on shout, she was nervous, “Elizabeth, who are these people,” she asked.  
“Penny get backed,” Elizabeth yelled, trying to keep the red head out of harm’s way.  
Roman took the moment of distraction to fire another shot, the blast found its mark, sending both Leonard and Elizabeth flying past Penny. In an instant, the expression of Penny’s face changed, a flash of anger, turquoise eyes narrowed in on a maniacally laughing Roman Torchwick.  
As Penny walked towards the battle, Elizabeth struggled to stop her, “Wait, Penny,” she shouted.  
“Don’t worry Elizabeth,” Penny said, turning to smile at the two who had been so kind to her, “I’m combat ready!”  
As she spoke, the small backpack she wore opened, out of it popped a single folded sword, which in an instant was about a dozen identical blades, spread behind her like wings as she leapt into the fray, blades raining down on Fang members, as she landed. Leonard and Elizabeth couldn’t do anything but watch. Not to say it was a bad thing, Penny had complete control of her weapon, using the blades to cut through the opposing force with ease, even using all her blades at one point as a giant throwing star that tore apart an entire squad of goons. Even she had dealt with the goons, the fight was not over as more Bullheads appeared, the gatling guns that were mainly used in defense against Grimm spewed bullets at the young woman, who used most of her swords as a spinning shield, deflecting the incoming fire, while two more swords shot from her back, anchoring themselves to a nearby wall and dragging Penny with them once they had hit the wall. Once she was out of the hail of bullets, the swords started to spin in a cylindrical formation, a ball of green energy charged in the center. With a single motion, Penny fired a massive beam of energy, cutting two of the Bullheads flying towards her in half, sending them careening over the warehouse, crashing into the bay behind them.  
A third Bullhead attempted to escape, a shipping container of Schnee Dust strapped to its belly. Penny was on it in an instant, her swords driving into the ship’s armor plating, and she somehow kept the ship from flying away, it struggled to escape a death grip Penny somehow had on it.  
“How the,” Leonard murmured, unsure of what was going on.  
Unseen to everyone though were tiny wires, holding Penny to her swords, allowing her to control them like puppets, causing the engines of the plane to strain and whine as Penny pulled the vessel down, crashing it into several more shipping containers.  
As this was going on, Torchwick got onto the last remaining Bullhead, just needing to get away from here before the police arrived.  
“These kids just keep getting weirder,” he mutters to himself as he gets onto the plane, which flies away before anyone can react.

 

* * *

 

_About one hour later_

Team SNOW finally arrived on the scene to the entirety of Team BLZE, as well as some new friends seated in a loose circle. Zinnea had gotten there a few minutes ahead of them and was busy looking over Blake to make sure she was okay.  
Elizabeth noticed them first, walking up to Weiss before she could explode, causing the whole argument to start all over again.  
“Look Weiss,” Elizabeth started as she walked up, “It’s not what you think; she explained the whole thing. The bow she wears just covers up her cat ears and they’re kind of cute.”  
Weiss completely ignored her, while Orion just gave Elizabeth a confused look, “Cute,” he mouthed questioningly. Elizabeth just blushed a little and absentmindedly played with her hair as she went back to sit with Leonard.  
Blake at this point had stood up and was staring down Weiss, a soft amber met icy blue, swallowing her inner fears, Blake spoke with confidence she wish she had earlier, “Weiss. I want you to know I am no longer associated with the White Fang. Back when I was with-“  
Weiss cut her off, as much as she wanted to hear the full apology she had made up her mind a while ago, “Stop,” her interruption caught Blake a little off guard, “Do you have any idea how long we’ve been searching for you?”  
Blake just shook her head, no real idea of how much time had passed today.  
“Let’s see,” Weiss said, checking her Scroll for the time, “it’s 10 pm. Twelve hours. And in that twelve hours I’ve had time to think about this and I’ve decided, I don’t care.”  
Everyone was a little shocked by the answer, except Orion who had talked it over with her on the way here.  
“You don’t care,” asked Blake, confused.  
“You said you’re not one of them anymore, right,” Weiss asked for confirmation.  
“No,” Blake responded, “I haven’t been with them since I was younger-“  
“I don’t want to hear it,” Weiss said, cutting Blake off again, “All I want to know is that next time something like this comes up, you’ll come to your teammates or your friends and not some…someone else.”  
“Of course,” Blake said, wiping a tear from her eye.  
“Group hug,” shouted Orion, grabbing Weiss while Leonard grabbed Blake, the two pulling the entirety of Team BLZE and SNOW together, Orion laughing as Weiss stiffened under the intimacy of the situation. As the hug dispersed, Weiss turned to Sun, who had ended up in the group hug when Zinnea had pulled him in.  
“I’m still not quite sure how I feel about you,” she exclaimed, causing Sun to nervously laugh.  
“I do,” Zinnea said, grabbing Sun by his collar, “C’mon monkey boy, we need to talk for a bit.”  
Everyone was confused about that, looking around, Leonard noticed one last thing, “Guys, where’s Penny.”

In a car nearby, Penny Polendina sat in the back seat, watching Teams BLZE and SNOW as she was driven off.  
“You should know better than to go running around in a strange city,” the driver scolded her.  
Penny just hung her head in shame as she spoke, “I know sir.”  
“Your time will come Penny,” the driver said, “For now, the General would like to talk to you.”

 

* * *

 

_Elsewhere_

Professor Ozpin sat, watching a video of the incident in real time. As he sat there, a noise came from his scroll, an incoming message. Opening it he saw it was from Qrow.  
The message was simple, “Queen has pawns,” but Ozpin still knew what it meant, trouble.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, so that's the end of Volume 1 in terms of RWBY, but we still got the epilogue, which should be out soon, the official revealing Leonard's powers, as well as an explanation of that short interaction between Zinnea and Sun at the end of the chapter.  
> And yes, this chapter was kind of long, a lot to fit in this time, and it was not enough to split it up, but as a volume finale, it's ok.  
> Also, Weiss has social intimacy issues, I love you anyways Ice Queen.
> 
> Finally, the side characters:  
> Samuel Church(You'll get to meet the mysterious 'kids' soon)  
> Mizayaki Shinraku(mention)  
> Qrow Branwen


	15. Epilogue: Secrets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emotions and pasts spill out as Team BLZE comes to terms with the events of the day.  
> And they're not the only ones.

After a chaotic evening, Team BLZE found themselves in their dorm, normally they would be getting ready for bed, normally they wouldn’t have found out that their team leader was hiding the fact that she was a Faunas that had been a member of the White Fang, normally they wouldn’t have been worried about the secrets they kept from the others, but not tonight, tonight they were going to have to let a lot out, not all of it, but enough.  
“Blake,” Leonard said, concern in his voice, “can we talk about this?”  
He pointed to Blake’s bow as he spoke, sighing, Blake motioned for the others to sit, and they did, Zinnea next to Blake with Leonard and Elizabeth across from them.  
Blake talked about her association with the White Fang, how she had been with the Fang since she was a little girl, how she had watched the leadership change hands, how she had been okay with the attacks and robberies until she realized that it wasn’t the respect she wanted, she wanted to be treated like an equal because she was, not out of fear that if she wasn’t something terrible happened. She spoke about this with tears in her eyes, finally letting out all the emotion that had been building over the course of this day. Zinnea put a hand on her shoulder to try and comfort her, but Leonard had one last thing to ask.  
“Why didn’t you tell any of us,” he asked, “At least the part where you were a Faunas.”  
Blake sniffled before answering, “Because I was afraid, not of what you might think of me being a Faunas, but what would have happened if you found out about my past. I didn’t want you to see me as a criminal, but as a teammate and leader. That’s why I didn’t tell you, any of you.”  
Zinnea pulled in for a hug, “Blake, I think we’re all in agreement that knowing your past wouldn’t change a thing. It’s just another part of you, something involving that may rear its ugly head at some point, but we’d be with you for it, always.”  
Blake looked at Leonard and Elizabeth to see smiles and thumbs up, an unspoken agreement, Blake was just glad that she no longer had to hide like this.

Leonard took in a breath, deciding now was the time, while Blake had been talking to Ozpin earlier, he and Elizabeth had decided to go through with it, tonight would be the night, no more putting it off.  
“We need to say something,” Leonard announced, “I need to talk about these,” Leonard held up his hands, his gauntlets on the bedside tables.  
Blake shook her head, “Leonard please, we’ve had to go through one tragic past tonight, we don’t need another.”  
“I appreciate the sentiment Blake,” Leonard said, “but no. I need to talk about this. We put off talking about this for an entire quarter because of you, Blake.”  
Blake was stunned as Leonard continued, “Whether or not you realized it or not, we noticed how you were looking at Zinnea while she wasn’t looking. Elizabeth and I saw pain, an inner conflict we couldn’t truly understand since we barely knew you, but we saw it nonetheless. We were nervous, that if we dumped this on you, you would break down, lose the sanity to maintain that emotionless façade you put on for the world. We didn’t want to put this on you until we either knew what was wrong or we thought you had come to peace with whatever war was inside you. So please I need to talk about this, because if we don’t do this now, I might never find a chance again.”

Leonard had stood up while he was talking, plopping himself back on his shared bed, he took a deep breath, he didn’t want to talk about this, he wasn’t ready to talk about all of it yet, but he needed to talk about some of it, at least the events, not the people.  
“What I need to talk about has to be the worst year of my life,” he began, trying to hold back his tears, remembering all of it, the pain, the fear, the terror, the sadness, all of it He felt a soft hand take one of his, looking up he saw Elizabeth holding his hand, telling him silently that he could do this, “I grew up with something you could almost call an extended family, I spent time around family friends, people my parents had known since they were our age, maybe even younger. I grew up around their children, two my age, and one a couple of years younger than us, a little sister to one of them, they were like a family, even though none of us were even related. When I was five years old, the one with the little sister went out into the forest looking for someone. Instead of finding who they were looking for, they found a pack of Beowolves. I went to my first funeral at the age of five, I was afraid, afraid that I was going to lose someone else, and I did. Ten months after my first funeral, I went to another one, the mother of the two who had died committed suicide in grief. I wasn’t sure how to react, but even with all of this death, I didn’t think my life could get any worse,” he paused, letting out a shaky breath, remembering his panic as Pierce fell limp, “I was so wrong. Three days afterwards, my semblance unlocked, I paralyzed the other childhood friend; he was in a coma for two weeks. The doctor said he should have died, but two weeks later, he was completely recovered, almost like nothing had ever happened. He knows what I did, but I had started gloves by that point, I haven’t been without some form of gloves for thirteen years.”

Blake and Zinnea were stunned, no idea of what to say, but Leonard continued, instead of talking about his past, he talked about his semblance, “My semblance may be the weirdest thing you will ever see. I am cursed, my right hand is a paralyzing venom, and it’s not weak, I can kill someone in an hour with a single touch, that time is shortened to minutes under extended contact, whether it stops your heart or your lungs first if up for debate, but it will drain the strength from your body and leave you there to die, unable to fight back. The worst part is that would be a mercy in the eyes of many, as my left hand produces much worse. Its touch is acid, I can melt through a Grimm in minutes, severing limbs or melting away throats in seconds, and all that would be left of them is a smoking pile of liquid. The effect on humans in worse, if someone has an aura, their aura would keep the acid from consuming their body, but the result would be a weakened aura and a nasty scar to boot.”  
Zinnea finally decided to speak up after hearing Leonard pour his soul out, learning some scary things about the boy, whose cocky attitude was actually a façade for a scared, but dangerous child. There was one thing that was odd though, and Zinnea noticed it as Leonard was talking about his powers, “Alright, so if you can kill people just by touching them, how is Elizabeth able to touch you without dying every second?”  
Leonard opened his mouth to say something, but stopped, it was a legitimate question, but it was not his to answer.  
Elizabeth looked at Zinnea, the look in her eyes almost hypnotic, emerald green became piercing, like she was staring into something not even Zinnea knew she had.  
“Zinnea, try breathing your fire,” Elizabeth asked, pointing towards the window.  
Zinnea went to do it, but all she could feel was splitting headache, her head in hands she looked at Elizabeth, who was still staring her down, “What did you do to me,” she asked, still not sure what was happening.  
“It’s the reason I can be around Leonard,” Elizabeth said, the stare now gone, “I’m a screamer,” Elizabeth shot both Zinnea and Blake a look before continuing, “Not like that, I’m immune to people’s semblances, I can see through illusions, I’d be immune to Weiss’s glyphs, it means that Leonard can touch me without worrying about hurting me, or worse.”

Zinnea just made an ‘oh’ with her mouth, understanding how they could be so close. She felt all eyes on her, as a question about this evening hung on their lips.

“So, with all the emotional stuff out of the way,” Elizabeth started, noticing how Zinnea was reacting under the collective stare, “What I want to know who that monkey Faunas was? You got an old flame we don’t know about Zinnea,” Elizabeth’s tone was teasing, mostly because of how both her and Leonard had seen the wink Sun had made towards Zinnea and Blake.  
“More like an old annoyance,” Zinnea huffed, “Sun’s an old friend from Vacuo. We went to the same combat school, and some of the lessons that were drilled into him while we were at the dojo didn’t stick.”  
Zinnea sighed, remembering all the ridiculous things Sun use to do, “Everything you guys experienced today, he use to do that a lot, steal food, get into fights, and cause mischief. I kind of chewed him out over all that, since it was the first time I’ve seen him since he went to Mistral for Haven Academy last summer. It’s just kind of aggravating to see him back to his old habits after not seeing him for seven months, but I miss the big dork. You know what I mean.”  
Leonard and Elizabeth both nodded, thinking about Braxton and Pierce, both in schools far from here.

The four continued to talk about their pasts for about another hour, Leonard offering Blake and Zinnea another opportunity to go meet Samuel in the morning. The two declined, Zinnea saying that she wanted to talk to Blake about something tomorrow, Blake confused by the sly smile Zinnea gave her, but nevertheless agreed.

 

* * *

 

_Elsewhere_

Roman Torchwick had had a very rough evening. His heist had gone south, the second time since he had been hired by this woman. Fortunately he wasn’t supposed to be hearing from them for another two days. Entering the warehouse he had been using as a hideout he plopped down the last of the stuff from his two most recent heist, a case full of uncut Dust crystals. Everything had been delivered to the warehouse he was in already. He was about to relax when he heard a voice behind him.  
“How very disappointing, Roman,” the voice said, sultry as always, the kind of voice where the person behind it could show you a good time, just before they slit your throat.  
Turning around in surprise, Roman said the only thing that could come to his mind, “Wasn’t expecting to see you guys so soon.”  
“We were expecting, more from you,” said the voice, as she stepped out of the shadow, Roman knew the woman behind the voice, she had been with him the first time he had a heist go wrong, he still didn’t know everything about her, or her two associates, the three just showed up one day and offered him a deal he almost couldn’t refuse, but recent developments had made it…difficult.  
Roman let out a nervous laugh, “Hey, you were the one who suggested working with those stupid mutts from the White Fang.”  
The woman snickered at his remark, “And you will continue to do so,” the woman said, conjuring a small flame in her left hand, “We have big plans for you, Roman. All we ask is a little cooperation.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that's Volume 1 from Scattered Petals. Thank you for being patient with me during this, hopefully I will able do get started on Volume 2 soon.  
> As for the chapter, Leonard and Elizabeth got their semblances revealed in this one, the reason why I named their relationship is basically that.  
> And the ending thing, had to find a way to incorporate Roman because of his 'special' guests, for those of you who have seen RWBY, you know who they are.
> 
> Also, just remembered, being done with Volume 1 means the ask box on my blog is now open, so go to town guys, anything you need answered, go for it, just know I will be a little iffy with the questions about upcoming chapters and volumes.
> 
> Thank you again,  
> Thorns

**Author's Note:**

> Alright...so probably should have done this earlier, but better late than never.
> 
> Disclaimer; With the exception of my OC's(labeled as such) the RWBY series, as well as many of the characters in this story are property of Rooster Teeth and Monty Oum.
> 
> If you wish to get to know the characters of this story more, check out my tumblr, [RWBY-Scattered Petals-AU](https://scatteredpetals-au.tumblr.com) for more. Thank you all.


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